In Full Swing
by ClaudiaRain
Summary: Leonard and Sara crash a party…it doesn't go as planned.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** I own nothing.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed my first LoT story! You all encouraged me to keep writing this pairing.

This takes place when everyone's been working together for a while and they're all friends. It will be ~4 parts.

 **XXXXXX**

"Don't say I never took you anywhere," Leonard told Sara with exaggerated enthusiasm, as security checked their fake licenses against a guest list.

"You're so good to me," she replied, overly sweet, for the benefit of said security. Len didn't bother hiding his amusement as he took their IDs back and pocketed them. ("I like to have my hands free at all times," Sara had told him earlier that day, by way of explaining why she wasn't bringing a clutch. Then she'd brought him down to the mat to stop whatever comment he'd been about to make in response – one of the perks of sparring with him.)

They ascended the front steps of the mansion that rose in front of them. In the winding driveway at their back, foreign cars were whisked away by eager valets; Len and Sara had been dropped off by a town car.

Staffers opened the front doors for them and they took a few steps inside before coming to a stop, trying to hide their surprise. They'd expected opulent, but the reality was beyond what either of them had imagined. They were standing on the white marble floor of a grand entryway that opened up into a sprawling main living room. A marble staircase curved up and out of sight onto the second floor with guards posted at the bottom, indicating it was off-limits. Dozens of guests were milling around as waiters crisscrossed the room with drinks and hors-d'oeuvres.

"There's a _fountain_ ," Sara whispered, inching forward and peering over the edge. "There are _fish_ swimming in it!"

"Easily impressed, I see." Despite his supposed disinterest, he peered over her shoulder to watch them swim in circles.

"Yeah, I'm the only one who cares about the fish," she said wryly, as he sent her a sideways glance and refused to acknowledge her veiled accusation.

A young man appeared beside them and offered to take Leonard's suit jacket. Since it was a warm summer night, Leonard relinquished it without protest and accepted a coat check ticket in return. Sara took a moment to admire how he looked in his dress shirt and vest – classy yet casual. And much to her envy, comfortable. It was pretty unfair that he'd gotten dressed in four minutes and still looked more put-together than she did after an hour of work (though she might have Jax to thank – or blame – for that).

As if to prove her inner thoughts, another strand of hair fell into her eyes. She had it half-pinned back with small red flowers serving as decoration. She'd chosen them because they matched her dress, but she was already regretting it since they kept coming loose – and her hair along with them. Instead of trying to fix it, like she had numerous times in the car, she tucked the hair behind her ear. She was _thisclose_ to ripping everything out completely, which was a shame because she really liked those flowers.

It was June 21, 2014, at the home of Greg Williams, an incredibly wealthy and prominent tech entrepreneur. Williams and his wife regularly threw lavish parties to impress their friends and business associates. His money didn't come from his investments, though, it came from a cleverly concealed decade-long system of money laundering which he ran for various criminal organizations (in return for a significant cut, of course). Several months from now, he would turn his interest to chemical weapons as an even better way to make money. He'd use his fortune to finance his newfound passion and the team he employed would develop a cheaper, much more devastating nerve gas than anything currently in existence. He'd then sell the plans to Savage, who would manufacture it and unleash devastation across much of Eastern Europe a few years down the road.

Since Williams came by his fortune illegally, Hunter's plan was to expose him to the authorities and get him arrested. In the current time (well, the time Hunter had taken them from), Williams was imprisoned and awaiting trial for his financial crimes, but Savage already had the plans for the nerve gas. If they could tip off the feds and get Williams locked up _before_ he started his project, then nothing would exist for Savage to buy (and Gideon was almost certain that specific nerve gas would never be created).

Williams was crafty, and thanks to the wonders of knowing his future, they were aware that he didn't keep his real financial records anywhere that Gideon could access them. Like any good, paranoid criminal, he kept them in a ledger which the feds would later recover in their investigation – in his bedroom. All they had to do was find it and turn it over, causing Williams to get arrested slightly ahead of schedule, and the rest should work out on its own. In theory.

(Leonard had been in favor of taking Williams' money while they were at it – "These custom designer coats don't buy themselves," he'd reminded everyone, which strangely enough, swayed no one to his side.)

Mick had suggested using brute force to storm the house, but they were trying to stay low-key in order to affect the timeline as little as possible. Ray had insisted he could use his suit to sneak in and steal the ledger, until Gideon told them that Williams had cameras everywhere that were always monitored – including in his bedroom. ("Yeah, I'm sure _that_ one's for security," Leonard had smirked.) Disabling all the cameras at once would definitely sound alarms.

When Gideon had informed them that Williams and his wife enjoyed an open marriage and regularly took other partners, they'd decided that was their best option. Williams threw plenty of parties, so they'd attend as guests and Sara would charm him enough to gain access to his bedroom. Slip him some drugs, disable the camera, find the ledger, and escape. It seemed simple enough…which meant it probably wouldn't be, at all.

Gideon had added their names to the guest list for Williams' next party (his assistant had woefully poor security on her laptop) and they'd walked through the front door without a hitch. Ray was their getaway driver and potential back-up, Hunter and Kendra were monitoring things from the ship, and the other three were off in 2014 checking out several businesses associated with Williams to cover all their bases.

"I could get used to this," Sara murmured, admiring the way light reflected off the crystals in the chandelier above them. The closest she'd come to this kind of wealth was dating Oliver and he hadn't been the type to shower her with gifts (nor had she wanted him to), but she had to admit… "Personal staff would be very convenient." Like a hair stylist, for example.

"I can take care of myself," Len told her, and of course he hated the idea of people waiting on him. "Besides, that kind of position is usually easy to infiltrate. I would know."

"Worked in a few wealthy households, have you?" she asked.

"'Work' is a relative term," he hedged. "I'd say my average length of employment was a week."

"That long?"

"Sometimes I stuck around to enjoy the finer things for a little while before stealing what I joined the staff to steal. Too bad Williams has strict hiring protocols and it wasn't an option this time around. Lucky for you, though, since you get to enjoy my company all night."

"Ah, yes. Lucky me. How do I get roped into these things, again?"

"You volunteered," he reminded her.

"I volunteered to save Kendra from having to spend the evening with you."

"Or is it that you didn't want to spend the evening without me?"

"Yeah, Leonard," she said, dryly. "You solved the mystery. I just can't tear myself away from you."

"Are you finally admitting it?"

"Is it too late to trade you for Ray?"

"That's what I said!" Ray exclaimed, voice crackling over the comms. He was parked down the road and he'd been protesting his role since the beginning. "I think I'd have been better suited to –"

"Simmer down, Raymond," Leonard cut him off. "We've got things under control. I doubt you could keep Sara reigned in like I can."

She spun on her heel to face him as Ray's voice echoed in their ears, wishing Leonard good luck after that remark.

Sara grabbed hold of his tie, as if interested in straightening it, and used their closeness to threaten, "I'm going to say this once – a successful mission might require both of us getting out of here, but it doesn't mean you have to be in one piece."

He searched for the reply that would irritate her the most. "I love it when you get all domineering," he said coolly, and when her eyes narrowed, he knew he'd made a good choice.

She adjusted the knot in his tie, making it a little too tight, and absently noted that it matched the red of her dress (his style was on point this evening, she'd give him that). "I could kill you with this."

He put his hands over hers – they both knew she wouldn't need the tie. "I'd put up a fight," he promised.

They stared at each other, neither flinching or backing down, and the odd intimacy of the moment caused Sara to end the standoff. "Forget it. You'd enjoy it too much."

He carefully pulled her hands away from the fabric. "If you were going to kill me, it wouldn't be that way."

"You're right. Why ruin a perfectly good tie?"

"If you did, you'd owe Palmer $300."

"You stole my tie?" Ray sounded completely unsurprised. "I'd ask when and how, but I probably don't want to know."

"Haven't you ever short-circuited a lock?" Leonard asked him. "Lucky for me, you're a heavy sleeper."

Sara shook her head slightly. "Half the things you say could come straight from interviews with serial killers. _Boundaries_ , Leonard. Learn to follow them."

"I've never stolen from _you_ ," he swore, and thanks to the serial killer comment, he couldn't resist adding, "I only watch you sleep."

"If I ever wake up to find you staring at me –"

"I'm so glad we decided to send the two of you," Hunter interrupted over the comms, and even though it was only ten minutes into their evening, he was already frustrated. "This wasn't a mistake in any way."

"Aw, Hunter, I was looking forward to her finishing that threat." Leonard rather enjoyed the way Sara was glaring daggers at him.

"It ends with you not breathing."

"Not really my taste," Leonard told her, "but I'll try it if that's what you're into."

"Every time," Hunter was saying, mostly to himself. "Every time I think 'never again' and then you somehow end up together anyways."

"Hasn't everyone realized by now that it's an act?" Len asked their team. "Hostility is how Sara shows her affection."

"I'd push you into the fountain, except it'd probably help your case," she lamented.

"Wouldn't be fair to the fish, either."

She couldn't help her smile. The first part of what he'd said was definitely accurate. Their outward behavior was mostly an act and they could get along fine when they wanted. The simple truth was that they loved giving each other a hard time – which was exactly what he was doing now in front of their team. Still… "I don't think I'm _that_ hostile. Am I?"

"You threaten him a lot," Kendra pointed out reluctantly, as if she felt she might be betraying her friend. "Like _a lot_."

"It's…I'm…that's to keep him in line."

"I think I get it," Ray chimed in. "It's the same as how kids are mean to each other when they secretly like each other."

Sara grit her teeth. "You're not helping, Ray."

"I wasn't trying to help," he sounded confused.

Leonard was looking annoyingly smug. "Face it, Lance. It's psychology 101."

She couldn't contain her exasperation. "Let's analyze you, then. You hit on me like twelve times a day and that's a _low_ estimate. What does that say?"

"That's solely for your benefit. I have to give you _something_ so you don't go crazy from longing."

"Longing? Yeah, longing to –" she cut herself off before she could make another threat.

Leonard's expression told her that he knew exactly what she'd wanted to say. "I'll be here when you've worked through your feelings."

She ignored that. "Know what, to prove you all wrong, from now on I'm only going to be nice." Wait, better not make promises she couldn't keep. "Maybe. Depending on how I feel."

Len smiled at her qualifiers, and when he spoke, his tone lacked its usual bite. "I never asked you to change, Lance. I happen to like you just the way you are."

She studied him for a moment, feeling an inexplicable warmth. She was so used to his sarcasm that when he said something serious, she never knew what to do with it. "Not fair, you just out-niced me in two seconds, like you always have to be better than I am."

"Only you would twist a compliment into me somehow trying to one-up you."

Hunter knew that if he didn't interrupt them, they'd go on forever; the two of them had a real ability to make him rethink his life choices. "Don't make me go back to when we first met and rework the timeline so that I can erase ever knowing – ow, Kendra!"

"Sorry guys," Kendra said. "Rest assured, we're not going to retroactively remove you from the team."

"Thanks, Kendra," Sara said, hoping their friend could hear the gratitude in her voice. She felt something brush her ear and touched it to find another one of the small flowers in her hair had come loose. She'd had it. She reached up, intending to take her hair down, when Leonard batted her hands away.

"Who helped you with this? _Jax_?"

"Well…"

"Seriously, Lance?" He replaced the flower that had fallen out. "I was kidding."

"I was rushed for time and he was the only one around." She'd done her make-up while Jax finished her hair, and though he'd done alright for someone with apparently zero experience, it hadn't held up over time. "Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the extent of his skill was hairspray. Lots and lots of hairspray."

"In that case, you're lucky you didn't go up in flames." He turned her so that he could fix the other flowers, tired of watching her struggle with them. "I guess he didn't understand they were supposed to be pinned into place. Not…shellacked."

It was such an accurate description of Jax's technique that she glanced back at him and he let go of her hair so he wouldn't pull on it. "He used _four_ different kinds of product. I don't even know where he found them!"

"Palmer's room, no doubt."

"Hey," Ray interjected, "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

Len waved his hand in a circle, indicating that she needed to face forward. "They must have been good quality, at least, since your hair isn't completely ruined – despite Jax's admirable attempt."

"It seems suspiciously like you know what you're doing," Sara said, careful not to move again.

"I have a sister, remember? She sometimes enlisted my help for things like this." He must have thought about the picture that made. "Don't tell anyone that."

"We can hear you," Kendra supplied, cheerfully.

"Damn it. Foiled by the comms again," he muttered as he pinned the last flower into place and stepped back to admire his work.

Sara couldn't shake the image of a younger version of him helping his little sister; she sometimes wondered what direction his life would have gone if he'd had a halfway decent childhood. (Would he even be standing there with her?) "Thank you."

"Wow, have I earned a genuine 'thank you', free of sarcasm? Can you take it a step further and pretend to like me for the evening?"

"Going to need a few drinks for that," she lied, nimbly lifting a champagne flute from the tray of a passing waiter.

"Make sure to drink slowly. I don't need you all over me before we get what we came for."

She sipped the champagne to keep from laughing and glanced around, hoping to spot their mark, but Williams was nowhere to be seen. She did notice that they were earning a significant amount of curious and interested glances from other people in the room. It wasn't too surprising because (she had to admit) they made a striking couple. She was no stranger to attention, especially when she put as much effort into her appearance as she had that night, but there was something…off about the party. Or the guests.

Perhaps it had been too long since she'd been in a situation like this? They mostly found themselves in prisons or hospitals or industrial warehouses. Spending an evening with Len at a high-society party in a palatial mansion was pretty much the opposite of their last mission when she'd accidentally ended up in a shipping container on a barge that was headed for mainland China. She knew to trust her instincts, though, so she filed her concerns away to examine later, maybe talk to Len about once they'd settled in.

"I can't believe this place," he was saying, "I've only ever been in homes like this to pull off heists."

"Out of your comfort zone? Sorry that not every mission can take place in a dive bar, Leonard."

"Look at these people," he continued, disdainfully, "sipping cocktails and talking about their newest app ideas. Which one of our vacation homes should we winter at? Which boarding school is the best to get rid of our children?"

"You really don't like the rich, do you?"

"I'm not the biggest fan of polite society," he explained. "I've found that generally people like this have no idea how good they have it. And most of them are no better than your average criminal – they just have enough money to buy their way out of the crimes they commit."

"These people might be nothing like that, and even if they are, shouldn't you feel a kinship with them? What's the difference between robbing a bank and embezzling from your company?"

"The difference is I never claimed to be anything other than what I am. What you see is what you get."

"That is definitely not the truth," she countered. She'd learned pretty quickly that no one could judge him more harshly than he did himself.

He didn't feel like arguing the point with her, even though she was wrong. "While we're on the topic, I'd be having a lot more fun if –"

" _No stealing_ ," she warned, waving the champagne glass at him.

"What if you don't know about it?"

She made sure to keep her voice down, although there was no one nearby. "We can't risk getting thrown out before we find what we came for."

"You say that like you think there's any way I'd get caught," he said, dismissively.

"If you botch our entire plan before it begins, I might convince Hunter to leave you in 2014."

"Fine, I'll be on my best behavior, loathe though I am at the prospect." He took her glass to try the champagne. "Hmm. At least Greg Williams has taste." Off her look, he added, "I'm a connoisseur, Sara. Of _many_ things."

She didn't miss the insinuation in his tone and arched a brow. "Is that right?"

"I'd happily give you a demonstration."

"I hate to interrupt your _date_ ," Hunter's voice came over the comms again, sounding extremely condescending, even for him, "but I think you're there for a reason other than to waste time…what is it again? Oh yes, find the ledger!"

Leonard and Sara exchanged a smirk. It was always fun to annoy Hunter, and the other man made it so easy, too.

They hadn't even moved beyond the entryway (alright, maybe their leader had a point about them wasting time) and Leonard had already realized that Sara was going to have to turn down a few guests on her way to finding Williams. He took a step closer to her, near enough that their clothing brushed, though he wasn't otherwise touching her. "I can't decide if I should start acting as the jealous husband yet."

"Why are we playing a couple again?" She'd been repeating the same question since they decided on their cover – married co-workers at a rising engineering firm that Williams wanted to do business with. "We didn't need the married part. Co-workers would have been fine."

"We could have been co-workers who are sleeping together, sure," he agreed, giving her back the drink he'd stolen.

"That's not what I meant."

"You know this cover made the most sense. What 'co-workers' attend a party together?"

She wordlessly gestured from him to herself and back again.

"You consider us _co-workers_?" He sounded horrified. "God, Lance, I was sure our relationship had more color than that."

"What you call 'color' normal people call 'harassment'." She finished the champagne and handed the empty glass to a waitress.

He lowered his voice. "Good thing we're not normal."

Well, that comeback wasn't fair. She couldn't argue with it at all.

"Besides, take a look around," he was saying. "We're in shark-infested waters."

"I know you're not implying that coming as a couple was to protect me. I have plenty of experience fending off unwanted suitors."

"Yes, you're a pro at that," he acknowledged, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "but remember, we don't need you killing or maiming any partygoers. The less attention we receive, the better. Though in that dress…good luck to us."

She tipped her head back. "Is that a sincere compliment, Leonard?"

He only laughed and turned them slightly so that he had a better view of the main room, using their conversation as a cover to surreptitiously surveil everything: memorizing the face of every person glancing their way, searching out the disguised security team among the guests, mapping the exits, and performing a dozen other calculations in his head about how to accomplish their objective and escape after it was over.

Sara had worked one-on-one with every member of their team and though it had pained her at first to admit it, she'd come to accept that she simply couldn't work with anyone else the same way she did with Len. She suspected it had to do with their lives before. They'd been doing this kind of thing for years: planning and executing (mostly illegal) operations under the most difficult situations imaginable. They both valued quick thinking and an ability to adapt at a moment's notice, even if that meant changing their plan in the middle of an operation, making one up as they went along, or ditching it entirely (to the perpetual aggravation of their teammates).

Sara also found that their operations together were usually pretty fun, even when things went wrong – hell, she might enjoy them _more_ when things went wrong, and that probably said a lot about her. She appreciated Leonard's innate ability to solve the seemingly unsolvable. He had enough confidence to pull off crazy schemes no one else would attempt, things that caused even her to hesitate (and it took _a lot_ to make her hesitate). More than once, he'd saved them at the last minute with a plan that never should have worked, but did anyways. (Like the time he'd gotten himself committed to help Kendra escape an asylum Savage had put her in, based only on his sketchy logic that "it's always easier to break out than in." And he'd been right.)

"While most people have glanced in our direction at least once," Leonard was telling her, "there are currently five men and two women who _keep_ looking our way. Three of them are definitely security. Do you want me to tell you which ones they are?"

She heard the teasing in his voice; he knew very well that she'd already found them among the crowd. "I think I'll manage. And about the interest in us, does it seem a little over-the-top to you?"

She could tell he was torn between making a joke about who _wouldn't_ want him versus revealing his actual concerns. He chose the latter. "It might be slightly more than normal."

"Do you think we're that suspicious?"

Before he could answer, a young woman walked over to them and asked for Sara's ID. She was dressed similar to the waiters and must have been another member of Williams' staff. Sara wondered if they'd run into a second layer of security, maybe one that scanned their licenses, or if she and Leonard had raised a red flag. If they'd gotten made this early, her pride was going to take a severe hit.

As Len handed over her fake license, Sara tried not to react to the change in him. Nothing was different on the surface, but he'd switched modes and was prepared to launch into a fight at any moment if things went wrong. Surely they had nothing to worry about; Gideon could probably make better IDs than the government.

"Thank you. I hope you have a wonderful evening," the girl said, smiling at them. She walked away and Sara almost called out to ask what she was doing when Len placed a hand on her arm. Instead of going off to scan her license like they'd feared, the girl dropped it into a box on a side table, then took the box with her out of the room.

Sara turned back to Leonard, hoping that didn't mean what she was 99% sure it meant. The fact that Williams and his wife had an open marriage, the amount of interest they'd been getting from other guests, and now having her ID taken?

From the growing smile on his face, she knew he'd come to the same conclusion.

"Are you kidding me?" she sighed.

He clapped his hands together. "We've stumbled across a swingers party, my dear."

"They're _all_ swingers?" Ray's voice suddenly broke over the comms. "Are you sure?"

"What's the matter, Raymond?" Len asked. "Sorry you missed out on this?"

They could hear Ray sputtering in indignation. "I'm not usually one to judge, however, I do think that marriage – or commitment to someone – should necessitate that you demonstrate monogamy. To willingly take another partner during that time is an affront to –"

"Annnd you're putting us to sleep," Leonard interrupted his spiel. "I'm very sorry that you're not here to lecture everyone. That would have gone over well."

"I could totally handle it," Ray insisted, and silence followed that remark as the others said nothing. "Okay, maybe not."

"I wonder how long it's going to take until this party's in full swing?" Leonard asked, slyly.

"No one thinks you're funny," Sara told him.

"The others might," he protested, then threw his hands up when no one defended him. "It's called a sense of humor, people. I suggest you all go find one."

Sara gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. "Swing and a miss, Len."

He stared at her for far too long (she gathered he was kicking himself for missing out on yet another opportunity).

"Is this an undercover operation or open mic night at an amateur comedy club?" Ray asked, breaking up their stalemate. "Because I have to say, you two are terrible."

Sara paid no attention to their annoyed teammate, choosing instead to ask, "How did you miss what kind of party this was, Hunter?"

"There was no outward indication," Hunter insisted. "He throws plenty of normal parties. This was supposed to be another one!"

"Relax, I might have come across a few of these parties in my time," Leonard informed them, as Sara sent him a look that conveyed her utter lack of surprise. "The lottery is self-explanatory. The ones I've seen are meant to give everyone a chance at matching with someone else and you're not required to do anything with the person that you don't want to do. It's more to create opportunities. The rest of the time, you spend the evening…making friends that you can meet up with later, maybe gaining invitations to other parties. Of course, every party's different and this one might have other things going on that we're not aware of yet."

"Thank you for that educational rundown, Mr. Snart," Hunter said. "We're lucky to have your expertise in these matters."

"Always at your service," Leonard replied. "We'll have to blend in at this party a little differently than we planned. I propose we get friendlier with some of the guests."

" _Friendlier_?" Sara didn't like the sound of that.

"When in Rome –"

"This is not a field trip for you," she warned, pointing at him. "I don't want you…getting distracted."

"Is that the real reason?" he goaded. "Or are you afraid of someone stealing me away?"

"On second thought, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if someone took you off my hands."

"That hurts, Lance. It really does."

She smiled at him, as if completely innocent, and he wondered how difficult it was going to be to get through tonight. He could barely manage to keep his distance from her as it was – and this was him _trying_. As such, he pretty much knew that if they were actually together, he'd never be able to function with her at a party like this (he'd never _bring_ her to a party like this). It was bad enough when he knew she'd have to seduce Williams and might get hit on by an occasional guest, but now that they knew the true purpose of the party, he was severely regretting their plan.

"Your first order of business is to get my ID back," Sara was telling him, "without being too conspicuous."

He wondered if that was code for 'don't seduce the pretty young staffer to retrieve it'. His next look at her merely said _please_. (He swore that she sometimes forgot the level of skill he possessed.)

When she remained in front of him, making no move to venture further into the party, he began to suspect there might be something wrong.

"Sara?"

She shook herself, realizing he'd reentered her personal space. He was doing that a lot lately (and not just tonight). "Nothing about this –" _how best to describe it?_ "– bothers you?"

"I'm not bothered by much," he carefully avoided her question.

"Yeah, me either." Which meant her reservations were all the more troubling.

"If anything, this should make getting to Williams easier. Everyone here is too focused on one thing to be suspicious of us." He laced his fingers with hers and she wondered if he was trying to reassure her or just playing his part for those watching them. "Let people think you like them. You're good at that. So am I."

He was right, though she still felt ill at ease and she couldn't say exactly why. She didn't care what consenting adults did (more power to them if it made them happy), but knowing she'd have to play along, to a certain extent, made her uncomfortable. Maybe it was a hang-up left over from times she'd rather not think about, times in her past when she'd done things that left her feeling ashamed. At least the people here weren't technically cheating, which made it easier, but everyone at the party _wanted_ to be there except her (and Len…well, maybe). To pretend she wanted to be part of it was going to take some superb acting on her part, and she was quickly finding that the whole idea was a surprisingly difficult mindset to get into.

He swung their still-linked hands, waiting for some kind of acknowledgement from her.

"I'm good," she claimed. A couple hours of acting – she'd be fine.

He didn't believe her and he could tell she wasn't in a sharing mood. If he pushed, she'd shut down and they'd get nowhere. He decided to wait her out and get the answer later (he always did). He spun her away from him, in the general direction of the other guests. "I'll be back. Go find Williams. Or perhaps another lover?"

"As if anyone could compare to you, right?" She beat him to the punch.

"I think you're finally getting it," he said, and they grinned at each other until a high-pitched whine sounded over the comms and they flinched.

"Sorry guys," Ray said, disingenuously. "Did I accidentally cause some feedback while adjusting the frequency? My bad."

"We're eventually going to leave this party," Leonard warned, satisfied when the other man didn't respond. He waved Sara away as if he were a dutiful husband…sending her off to find them another couple to match with.

Oh yeah, this night was going to go well.

"Watch your back," he called after her.

"Thought that's what you were for," she threw over her shoulder, as they headed in opposite directions.

 **XXXXXX**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Thanks so much for the feedback!

 **XXXXXX**

More than an hour passed with Len and Sara in and out of each other's orbits. They'd tried at various times to see if they could get upstairs separately, but there was too much security. It looked like their original plan would have to suffice, even though neither of them were particular fans of it.

Sara spent most of her time mingling with various guests, pretending to be interested in people while also politely turning down any offers she received. It was a difficult balance to maintain and it afforded her little time to actually search for Williams. She tried to ask about him whenever she could casually bring him up, but no one seemed to know where he was.

From what she saw of Len, he was having the same problems – though he seemed to be enjoying his 'plight' far more than she was. Watching him effortlessly charm the other guests made her strangely unhappy. Despite her jokes to the contrary, she found it nearly impossible to imagine any scenario in which she'd be fine giving him up to someone else. They were only _pretending_ to be a couple and the idea of him wanting to be with any of these people stirred unwelcome feelings that she refused to label.

Seeing him work a crowd like this also reminded her that his outward persona was all too often an act – and apparently it was a reminder she badly needed. He could become whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Just as her jokes about hating him were meant in jest, his jokes about wanting her were along the same lines. She'd never had a problem with it, either…until she saw that very same demeanor directed at other people here tonight. People who most definitely _weren't_ her.

A stray thought kept crossing her mind…what if he found someone he genuinely liked?

It wasn't uncommon to have some downtime after a mission. The team would take a few days to recover, relax, or explore their current time before they jumped again. She and Leonard generally spent those days together – it had started out as convenient and then become a habit. They'd quickly branched out from bars and would pick a destination based on where (and when) they were. The others would occasionally come along if their interests aligned.

Mick liked to join them when there was a high chance of violence or drinking or picking up women. Stein and Ray liked outings they deemed 'educational', such as museum visits and lectures given by historical figures. Kendra enjoyed lighter things such as shopping in different times and simply appreciating new cultures (dealing with flashes of her past lives was heavy enough, she told them, so she looked for fun diversions wherever she could). Jax's favorite thing to do was to try and catch famous sporting events. Hunter generally stayed on the ship after repeating his 307th lecture about making sure they didn't alter the timeline, but occasionally they managed to convince him to join them (it was good for him to be forced to get out of his own head, once in a while).

In any event, the point was that she and Leonard almost always chose a place to go together, no matter who else came along – but it wasn't as if it were a rule. If he wanted, he could spend his free time with someone else, anyone else. Like someone he met at this party. She supposed she could do the same, but…it had become apparent to her after several months that it wasn't 'just the way things worked out' that she always ended up with him after their missions. No, it was the way she _chose_ for things to work out.

She was beginning to think she might have a real problem to deal with soon and the thought was so jarring that she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Are you as bored as I am?" Leonard's voice carried over the comms, and Sara wondered (with a disproportionate amount of relief) if she might have been mistaken about how much fun she'd thought he was having.

She glanced around to find that he was nowhere in sight. That wasn't too surprising, considering that Williams' house had at least eight first floor rooms that guests were freely roaming. And that didn't even count the vast lawns at the back of the estate, lit up with lanterns and strands of twinkling lights. The backyard provided plenty of cozy sitting areas which were set up to ensure maximum privacy. Sara had avoided that area entirely since it was where couples were going for more intimate encounters.

"Some of these people are dull, sure, but it hasn't been that bad," she belatedly replied to Len's question. She actually preferred when the conversation revolved around normal subjects because it allowed her to ignore the fact that she was at a _swingers party_.

Leonard apparently didn't share her feelings on small talk. "You try pretending to be interested in someone's trip to wine country. I'd barely be interested in my _own_ trip to wine country."

"I sat through a few stories like that, too," she told him. "I think a solid half of the conversations I've had are about alcohol. What's up with these people and wine tastings?"

"Poor Leonard and Sara," Ray spoke up – they hadn't heard from him in a while. "Having to spend the evening at a party with free drinks and food, all while being hit on by beautiful people. I feel so bad for you two."

"There's such a thing as being _too_ wanted," Len argued. "It's a dilemma I know well, though I can't imagine you have much experience with it, Palmer."

"Don't listen to him, we all love you Ray," Kendra piped up.

"Congratulations, Raymond," Leonard said, mockingly, "you're being defended by a woman who dated Cisco Ramon."

"The same Cisco Ramon who helped you more than once?" Ray challenged.

"Don't bring rational arguments into this," Len shot back.

"He also saved your sister's life," Kendra added, defending their friend. "I might have heard a rumor that Lisa liked him and –"

"Don't you dare say it!" Len almost yelled.

"– they could be back home dating right now."

"I can't believe you said it," he groaned.

Ray couldn't let such an opportunity pass him by. "Forget dating, they could be married. They could have children!"

"That's it," Len announced. "I'm quitting the team. I have to go back home to save my sister from such a fate. Tell Gideon to set a course as soon as we're out of here."

Sara wished she could see the expression on his face. "Even though this is all purely hypothetical – well, we think – you have to admit Cisco's a good guy. He's fun, you know? I think a great sense of humor is important."

"Do you?" Leonard was skeptical. "That must be why you dated Oliver 'I-invented-brooding' Queen. _Twice_."

"Ooh, I'd date Oliver," Kendra said. "And much more than twice."

"Is the guy even capable of smiling?" Len asked.

"Oh I made him smile," Sara laughed. " _Many_ times."

"Yeah," Ray said, "Oliver gets a bad rap. He knows how to have a good time."

Everyone was silent for a few seconds until Leonard asked, "So you slept with him, too, Ray?"

"Wait…is that what she was talking about? Sorry if I can't follow along, I haven't eaten in seven hours and my blood sugar is getting dangerously low."

"We should probably close the topic anyway," Leonard said, already regretting bringing it up (for more reasons than one).

"But it's so much fun talking about exes," Sara replied. "We haven't talked about yours yet, Len."

"And we won't be either – I wouldn't want to offend any of this group's delicate sensibilities with the stories I could tell."

Hunter couldn't take it anymore. "Have I mentioned how much I love hearing about your dating lives? And how relevant it _isn't_ to our objective?"

Ray welcomed the subject change. "What we _should_ be talking about is food. I'm dying out here." His voice perked up when he asked, "Think you guys can sneak me some appetizers?"

"Yeah," Leonard said, somehow conveying that he was rolling his eyes just from his tone, "getting you a plate of puff pastries is definitely at the top of our list of priorities."

As they'd been talking, Sara had been moving throughout the rooms looking for Len, to no avail. "Where are you? Don't even tell me you're in the backyard."

"I'm actually not, though I've gotten _plenty_ of invitations."

"What's in the backyard?" Kendra asked, curious.

"It's where people are…getting to know each other better," Sara supplied.

Ray didn't think that sounded half-bad. "You know, at the parties and fundraisers I used to throw, I always liked to set up an area outside for dancing under the stars. It could be really romantic." No one said anything and Ray reflected on Sara's words. "There's no dancing outside, is there?"

"Not unless dancing is a euphemism," Leonard said, cheerfully.

"For what it's worth, Ray, I'd rather be at one of _your_ parties right now," Sara told him.

"I'll take an invitation, too, when we return to our own time," Leonard agreed.

"I'll keep it in mind if I want my guests to be robbed blind," Ray said, disapprovingly.

"I haven't stolen anything yet tonight," Len protested. " _Someone_ told me to be on my best behavior and I've been trying to oblige. That said, you should all know that I can only hold out for so long before –"

" _Don't steal anything_ ," a trio of voices came over the comms – Kendra, Ray, and Hunter had chimed in before Sara could.

Leonard sighed loudly, as if incredibly put-out. "It's a shame our team is comprised of such sticklers, Lance. I was hoping to…acquire something nice for you."

"Maybe I'd accept something if you _bought_ it."

The silence stretched a little long. "Does it count if I buy it with stolen money?"

"Someone save me," she begged the rest of their team.

"Sorry, Sara," Ray said, amidst some sort of loud rustling, "I'd try, but I'm about to faint out here. Wait, I think I found a Snickers!"

"We don't need your sleep-inducing narration for every insignificant thing in your life," Leonard reminded him. "And I can't believe you're eating food you found in a rental car."

"It was in a sealed wrapper," Ray argued. "As if you wouldn't do the same thing."

"Keep this channel clear," Len insisted (ignoring that he was the worst offender of all of them).

"Len, I'm going for the bar. Meet me there in thirty seconds if you know what's good for you." Sara's threat was empty, but she was banking on him showing up because it had been a solid half hour since he'd come by to annoy her. (He couldn't seem to last much longer than that.)

The main living room had a bar along one edge and there weren't many people there, with most guests preferring to get their drinks and move on. She stood with her back to it so she could watch the room. She was becoming an expert at not making eye contact with anyone – that only served to encourage them.

Where the hell was Greg Williams? She was starting to suspect that he might have already found a willing partner or two for the evening and retired. If so, that would make their job infinitely harder.

A whistle to her left had her turning her head, about to shut the person down, when she realized it was Leonard. He was standing near the other end of the bar and slid a rum and coke down to her. "I bought that for you."

"The drinks are free."

He held his arms out. "What a coincidence – so am I."

She took a sip and found it liberal on the rum, just the way she liked it. She'd never had problems holding her liquor, though she'd been careful to limit herself tonight to ensure she kept a clear head.

"Besides," he was saying, "free drinks are yet another reason to love this party."

"Weren't you bored ten minutes ago?"

He deliberately looked her up and down. "My opinion changes based on the company."

"What a coincidence," she echoed his words, "so does mine."

"I'm guessing that means you missed me."

"I can't miss you if you never leave me."

"Remind me – who told _who_ to come meet them at the bar, again?"

He probably had a point (she hated when that happened). "As if you wouldn't have shown up anyways."

They fell into companionable silence and she decided to take advantage of his presence by enjoying a short break from the party. When he was around, she'd noticed a decline in the amount of people who approached her. Under normal circumstances that might have annoyed her, but at the moment, all she could feel was grateful.

Maybe he felt the same, since he seemed in no rush to get back out there, either. They watched people enter and leave the dance floor on the far side of the room as the music changed songs. For the type of party they were at, there was relatively little indecency going on (minus the backyard). The guests seemed fairly reserved and guarding of their privacy – even their come-ons mostly consisted of indirect language. In today's age of being able to surreptitiously record anyone, it made sense.

"Meet anyone interesting?" he finally asked, and she got the sense he'd been holding back the question. "A nice young man, or woman – or couple – to go home with?"

She studied him over the top of her drink. "Why? Have you?"

"Maybe a few," he said, cryptically. "However, the night is young, so I'm excited to see where it takes me."

She was pretty sure he was kidding, but it _was_ Leonard, so maybe he wasn't. She sipped her drink to stop any ill-thought-out reply she might have been considering.

"I saw you out there," he continued, "getting them to eat out of the palm of your hand. I'm glad you're getting into the swing of things, Lance."

His words were casual enough that she nearly missed the pun. "You're ridiculous."

He held up his glass of water, in the parody of a toast. "When it comes to pulling this off, I really hope we can swing it."

"Stop."

"Sorry, am I annoying you? Do you want to take a swing at me?"

"I hate you," she swore, using her glass to (probably unsuccessfully) hide her smile.

Another minute passed before he reminded her, "And to think you suggested coming as siblings."

She nearly choked on her drink at the memory. She'd thrown out the option at one point just to argue with him. She couldn't let any of them – never mind Leonard – think she was fine with pretending to be in a relationship with him. It didn't fit their narrative, or perhaps more importantly, it didn't fit the narrative that she wrote for _herself_.

"You know if you'd agreed, we probably would have somehow introduced ourselves to a half dozen guests before realizing what was really going on," she mused. Strange situations often followed her and Len when they worked together (or was it that the two of them _caused_ those situations?). "It would have made for an…interesting night."

His tone was wry. "I think the word you're looking for is 'weird'. Not that I have anything _against_ weird, mind you."

She spared him a glance. "That might be the most uncomfortable compliment I've ever received."

He nudged her side. "If you want, I'm sure I can think of a lot more."

"You sure know how to win a girl."

"You're already stuck with me. I don't have to put in as much effort."

"Wait – this is you putting in effort?"

Before he could reply, another man walked over to them, angling for Sara. He was thirty-something, conventionally handsome, and watching Sara as if he was sure his confidence alone was more than enough to win her. She had a long history with men who held that type of self-assurance – she would bet that he'd rarely experienced rejection in his adult life.

"Evening, gorgeous," the man said, nodding at her. "I couldn't help noticing you've been watching me from across the room."

"I think you must be mistaken," Sara kept her tone polite but dismissive. Unfortunately, he didn't take the hint to move on.

"I'm Derek. My wife and I have a proposition for you." He moved forward, deliberately intruding on her personal space in a way that usually would have led to her making a violent point, but she managed to restrain herself. She didn't want to cause a scene unless it was her last resort.

Len had been casually leaning on the bar next to her, and the moment the stranger stepped forward, he shifted in a move so subtle that Sara wouldn't have noticed if she didn't know him so well.

He had no problem letting her fight her own battles (loved to watch, in fact) but he knew that her chosen method of dealing with it wouldn't do them any favors. In this instance, non-violence was their best option.

Which conveniently didn't put the _threat_ of violence off the table.

Derek hastily moved back when he noticed the man standing beside her. His tunnel vision focused on Sara had failed to alert him to Leonard's presence before.

The flash of nervousness (and fear) on her would-be suitor's face had Sara glancing over at Len. He was watching Derek in a way that she didn't recognize; it actually chilled her.

"We were in the middle of a conversation," Sara said flatly, making her disinterest known in her voice. Derek flicked his eyes between them a few times. There was nothing to gain and potentially a lot to lose if he kept at it. The man next to her, the one she hadn't even bothered to introduce, was definitely capable of violence – he even seemed like the type who'd enjoy it.

Derek muttered something about hearing his wife calling him and then vanished with a speed Sara hadn't yet seen that night.

"You're effective," Sara told Len, unnecessarily. He'd dropped his threatening demeanor and gone back to his normal self in a split second; the speed of the transformation amazed her. And he hadn't spoken a single word during the entire exchange.

"It's my patented blend of ' _Touch her and I'll torture you_ ' mixed with ' _Touch her and you die'_." Leonard's tone was just shy of gleeful.

"Those sound the same."

"There's a subtle difference, though I find them most effective when used in combination with each other."

"Feel free to stay here with me and use it on anyone else who comes into our radius," she said, maybe a little hopeful. "I'm not ready to go back out there yet."

"Believe me," he said darkly, "it'd be my pleasure."

For the next few minutes, to outward observers, they would have looked like any normal couple chatting near the bar. In reality, they were both actively taking in their surroundings – the behavior of the guests, how security quickly and effectively intervened in the most mild of disagreements, and the fact that even the staff weren't immune to being propositioned (or joining in, as the frequency of swapping phone numbers indicated).

Leonard could sense the hesitance in Sara that he'd seen earlier (her preferring to stand around at the bar with him instead of diving back into the party was a major hint) and it definitely wasn't normal for her. He'd been keeping tabs on her throughout the night, watching her with the other guests, and she'd been faking things well enough that she'd fooled everyone. Except him.

He set his water on the bar behind them. "If Williams doesn't make an appearance soon, we'll have to go with our contingency plan."

"Agreed. What's our contingency plan again?"

"I haven't thought of one yet. You?"

She shook her head. "I'll have to get back to you on that."

Hunter wasn't surprised. "Do you need us to –"

"No, we don't," Len cut him off. He was used to their leader's exasperation, even after all this time. "Act like you trust us, alright? We always get out unscathed."

Kendra coughed to try and cover her laughter, Ray remarked that was the funniest thing Len had said all night, and Sara merely looked at him.

"More or less," he tacked on.

"We'll come up with something," Sara promised before Hunter could decide if he took issue with Leonard's answer or not.

"I think distraction's our best bet," Len continued. "We could start a fight. Or light something on fire! I'm sure most people would get out if I –"

Hunter loudly cleared his throat. "Minimal. Impact. On. The. Timeline."

"You're really limiting our options here," Leonard complained.

Sara wondered why she bothered trying to help – even if she got him out of one hole, he immediately dug another one. It was practically his nature. "Let's hit pause on setting things ablaze. The first plan's still in play. Our night's not over yet."

As if summoned by her fairly optimistic statement, a couple in their early 40's joined them at the bar.

"Hello, I'm Margaret." The woman offered her hand to Leonard, looking him over in a way that had Sara bristling with the restrained urge to hurt someone. She fought it down and linked her arm with his to try and send the silent message that they wouldn't be too receptive to any advances.

"I'm Tom," Margaret's husband said, invitation clear in his eyes. (Apparently the message hadn't been received.)

Leonard could tell Sara's first instinct was to be…unpleasant, so he spoke before she could. "Nice to meet you, we're Len and Sara."

"Pleasure to meet you," Margaret returned, switching her gaze over to Sara, " _both_ of you."

"Same. Isn't it a lovely night for a party?" Sara replied, aiming for civil. And calm. And non-murderous.

"Indeed it is," Tom said, gesturing toward the back of the house. "Have you been outside yet? I could show you some of the better spots, there's a quaint garden way in the back."

Len tightened his hold on Sara's arm before she could say anything too harsh.

"Perhaps later," she said, carefully. "My husband and I like to take things slow and get to know people first, see if there's a connection." She processed too late that not only had she willingly referred to him as her 'husband', she hadn't even tripped over the word. This party was really doing a number on her head.

"Ain't that the truth," Leonard was telling the other couple, "we've been together for a while now and I'm still not sure if she even likes _me_."

"You shouldn't have to wonder by this point," she said, and he glanced at her, realizing he could take that either way.

Since Tom and Margaret seemed nice enough and weren't aggressive, he decided to fish for some information. "Have either of you seen our host?"

"Greg was here earlier, though I haven't seen him in over an hour," Margaret replied. "Maybe he's _busy_?"

No one missed what she was implying. "We were hoping to compliment him on this wonderful party," Sara said.

Tom set his empty glass on the bar. "I recall him saying he'd oversee the lottery drawing at 9 o'clock."

It was fairly close to 9 already. "I can't wait," Sara said, managing to sound enthusiastic because it'd be that much closer to the end of their evening.

"The thrill of the unknown," Tom said, almost philosophically, as he met Sara's eyes. "There's nothing quite like it."

She forced a smile, hoping the couple couldn't tell it was fake. "No, there sure isn't."

"Maybe we'll run into each other later," Margaret suggested. "Or we'll get lucky and find each other in the lottery."

"Maybe," Leonard agreed enigmatically, as the couple left them.

Once they were gone, he felt Sara lean into his side. She was staring toward the dance floor, though he guessed she wasn't truly seeing anything because he had to repeat her name a few times to get her attention. "You okay?"

"I don't know," she answered, without consciously meaning to do so. Something about him brought out the truth in her, things she'd never intended to tell anyone, and she'd long ago given up on trying to figure out why that was the case. That said, she had no idea how to explain what was bothering her, mostly because she didn't _know_ what was bothering her. (Or was it that she didn't want to admit what was bothering her?)

"Sara…"

"Don't worry," she insisted, "I'll be fine to do this."

He hated that she thought the job was his concern and stepped in front of her to ensure he had her full attention. "We can leave if you want. Just say the word. We'll figure out something else."

"Need I remind –" Hunter began, before he abruptly stopped talking. Kendra must have intervened again and Leonard sent her a silent thanks.

Sara thought about Leonard's offer – that he'd actually abandon the mission for her. That meant a lot, especially when he clearly didn't care if he had to go against their team to follow through.

"No, we'll stay. I'm okay." She impulsively brushed her lips against his cheek.

He blinked at her in surprise. "Don't try to sway me with sexual favors."

Obviously he'd lighten the mood with a joke. It was the way he operated and she was grateful for it. (No one avoided 'serious' or 'uncomfortable' the way the two of them could – they'd practically elevated it to an art form.)

"If that met your definition of a sexual favor, then I truly feel sorry for you, Leonard."

"Maybe I've lived a sheltered life," he argued, as she tried not to laugh at the absurdity of that statement.

"Wait a minute," Kendra interrupted. "What kind of favors are you talking about? What are you two _doing_ in there?"

"Don't ask them things like that," Ray scolded. "They might answer, much to our horror."

"Neither of you has any standing to be horrified about anything," Len told them. "Do you know how many times I've had to witness the two of you doing unspeakable things? Like holding hands?"

"I think that's sweet," Sara insisted.

"It's unnatural," Len snapped, then nodded at the dance floor across the room and held out his hand to her. "Come dance with me."

She glanced at his hand and then pinned him with a look that clearly said: _Are you kidding me?_

"Unnatural when _they_ do it," he clarified.

She rolled her eyes and tried to remember if she liked dancing at the moment. What was her most recent stance? It changed based on the week. And her partner.

Well, maybe it would help her regroup, and now that they knew Williams was supposed to resurface soon, they didn't have to search for him anymore. "Alright," she agreed, taking his hand.

No band or DJ was in sight at the party. Instead, music filled the room from expertly hidden speakers. Williams or his wife must have had a soft spot for pop ballads. She'd heard 'Lady in Red', 'Time After Time', and 'In Your Eyes' in succession over the past fifteen minutes.

"Sounds like someone recreated their easy listening playlist from the 80's," Leonard remarked as they wove their way among the guests to get to the dance floor. "I'm partial to 1987 myself."

"You know I was born in…" Her words faded as he smiled at her. Of course he knew – that was why he'd said it. "You better not be trying to charm me."

"I would never, Lance. We all know you're fundamentally uncharmable."

Was that even a real word? "Don't you forget it, either," she told him, even as she wondered if he knew that what he'd said wasn't true. Probably.

When they stepped onto the dance floor, he realized 'With or Without You' was playing. "How fitting. I can't think of a better song for us."

"We can't live with or without each other?" She was confused – what did he think they'd been doing all this time? "The fact that we're currently living with each other contradicts that."

"Ohhh, we're _living_ _together_?"

She regretted saying it, even as she forged on, "We live on the same ship. It's the technical definition."

"I never thought of it that way before," he spoke slowly. "I had no idea we'd taken such a big step. I didn't know I was ready for it. We're basically going steady."

" _Going steady_? Really?" It was probably concerning that she was more hung up on the phrasing than what the words themselves meant.

"The next time we hit Central City, I'll look for my class ring to give you to make it official," he said, spinning her when the chorus of the song started repeating a line about giving yourself away.

"Afterwards, can we all get milkshakes to celebrate and go to the local drive-in? Tell me, what was it like growing up in the 50's?"

"Yup, you got me, Lance. I'm 75 years old."

"I've had my suspicions," she alleged. "I mean, you did go to bed at 8 the other night. It was sad."

"I was really tired from – you know what, I don't have to justify myself to you."

She glanced up at him. "Don't you though?"

"This is feeling more like a real marriage by the minute," he muttered.

She pressed her forehead into his shoulder to try and hide her amusement. God help her.

"I can _feel_ you smiling," he taunted. "You always insist that no one finds me funny – least of all you – and then you go and laugh anyways. You're a hypocrite."

"I'm not smiling," she protested. "You can't prove it."

He pushed her back and searched her face – she'd just managed to blank her expression. He brushed his thumbs against the edges of her face, right beside her eyes. "Nice try, Lance. You don't only smile with your mouth, you know. Your eyes give you away."

She was surprised that _everything_ didn't give her away. "Whatever you want to believe."

As the song ended, they noticed a growing crowd on the other side of the room.

"Welcome everyone!" a loud voice announced, and they were relieved to spot the previously absent Greg Williams. About damn time.

He held up the box they'd seen when they first arrived and launched into a speech welcoming new and old guests alike. When he asked the men to line up and come choose an ID, Leonard dutifully went to play along. Other guests had informed them it was 'mandatory' to spend at least a half hour getting to know one's match, and it was mostly why she and Leonard had been so eager to circumvent that part of the night. She didn't want to waste that much time feigning interest in a person she might despise – it had been bad enough rejecting people thus far (and that was when most of them were fairly tolerable).

If Sara hadn't known Leonard already had her license, she would have truly believed he chose it at random – he was adept at sleight of hand, thanks to his background. He also put on quite the show when he held it up.

"Wow, I've chosen my own wife!" he exclaimed, as if shocked at the coincidence, and was greeted with whistles, cheers, and a select few boos from those who'd been hoping to match with her or Leonard.

"By the rules, you're allowed to try again," Williams offered, sending an appreciative glance Sara's way. "However, if you don't, you get to skip the mandatory meetings."

"Despite the stunning selection present here tonight," he flashed a provocative grin at the crowd, "I don't think I'll choose again."

He returned to Sara with a purposeful stride and she barely had time to grab hold of him when he tipped her backwards, pressing a kiss to her mouth as if he thought they were in a goddamn movie. His eyes were sparkling when he pulled her back up, taking full advantage of the fact that she couldn't do anything to retaliate – and having no idea that she wouldn't have, even if she could. She was too busy trying her best not to react to the tingling sensation that went far beyond her lips – she swore she could feel it all the way to her toes.

No, no, no. Not good. _So not good_.

Leonard turned back to Williams, noting with satisfaction that a spark of jealousy seemed to have been lit in their host. "We'll take the opportunity to make our own selection later this evening, instead."

Williams held up a glass in toast. "May your future choice be wise." Some of the people nearby repeated the sentiment while holding up their own glasses.

"As far as I'm concerned, I already made the best choice when I married this woman," Leonard said, theatrically, and it earned him a smattering of laughter and applause. He really knew how to sell it, to the point that even she began to wonder…

She waited until Williams had moved on with the lottery and everyone was distracted once more. It was easy to channel her anger and confusion about her own feelings into irritation at him. "What was _that_?"

He hesitated, wondering if she was as upset as she seemed. He decided it was best to hide behind his cover. "We have to make them believe, Lance."

"You kissed me to make them believe." She'd intended it as a question, but her words fell flat.

"Wait," Kendra broke in, "you _kissed_?"

"Purely on behalf of our cover," Len responded, then turned back to Sara, "and did you see their reaction? They completely bought it. I think I even had _you_ going for a moment there."

"Please, I've already forgotten it." She swallowed and went back to scanning the crowd to make sure that if there was even a momentary flash of hurt on her face, he'd never see it. _Of course_ it was all part of his act. She knew that, so why had she been doubting it?

"You've forgotten, hmm? You know, I'm more of a method actor. Maybe if we practiced –"

"In your dreams," she said, airily, though her heart wasn't in it.

He wondered what she'd do if she actually knew his dreams. "Williams has shown more than a passing interest in you."

"I noticed."

"That's good news," he stressed, watching her for a moment. He was tempted to pull the plug on the whole endeavor, no matter how many times she claimed she was fine.

"Yes, it is," she agreed. "We should be able to wrap things up soon." She knew that was what they all wanted to hear and she wished she believed it herself, because she'd never wanted to follow through with a plan less than she did tonight.

 **XXXXXX**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Thanks for the responses & encouragement!

 **XXXXXX**

When the lottery was over and the music started again, Sara and Leonard claimed a couch in a quiet sitting area to relax, observing the people nearby. It was easy to spot the compatible matches – those couples were talking animatedly with each other. The less favorable matches were obviously uninterested in each other, continuously checking their phones and making polite small talk until the time was up.

They debated the wisdom of seeking out Williams as opposed to letting the older man approach Sara. Before they could decide, their host made the choice for them.

"I'm always pleased when I see new faces at one of my regular soirees," he said, taking a seat in the armchair across from them. "Where do you two work, again?"

"Invigoration," Leonard supplied easily.

"Ah yes, the new start-up. I've been wanting to come by, I hear you're doing amazing work."

"We certainly are," Len said, smoothly.

Williams laughed outright at Leonard's bordering-on-smug confidence (and Sara marveled at how easily he took credit for accomplishments he'd had nothing to do with). The two men started discussing the latest projects and Sara tried to time her nodding at appropriate intervals to make it seem as if she were following along.

Ray was impressed with Leonard's command of the information. "Hey, you were actually listening when I told you about Invigoration's development slate!"

Len paused momentarily in his exchange with Williams before continuing. Ray had obviously spoken knowing Len wouldn't be able to reply – they had a habit of doing that to each other (Hunter's repeated lectures about 'jeopardizing their missions' be damned).

That was the only entertaining part of the conversation, though, and Sara proceeded to more or less tune them out – the entire topic bored her. Sure, she appreciated technological advances as much as anyone, but that didn't mean she cared about the intricacies of how they worked. Thankfully, Len knew of her disinterest and had easily picked up the slack.

She only took notice again when Williams bluntly told them he was hoping for more from their evening than talking about business.

"That can definitely be arranged," Leonard said. Sara tried her best to send Williams a seductive smile.

"I'm _very_ pleased to hear it. Unfortunately, my wife won't be joining us, she's…found other entertainment for the evening." Williams raked his eyes over Sara in a way that had her shifting closer to Leonard without consciously meaning to do so.

Leonard glanced at her, something close to worry in his eyes, before turning back to Williams. "One stipulation…I want to be there."

That hadn't been part of their plan, but like usual, she instantly went with it. In fact, based on her troubled state-of-mind, it was probably better for him to be there than not.

To their surprise, before either of them could try and talk him into it, Williams revealed he didn't need any convincing. "Like to watch, do you?"

From the way Len imperceptibly froze next to her, Sara could tell he didn't like the question (which was odd, considering he'd been the one to suggest it). "It's one of our things," she jumped in, aiming for confident.

" _One_ of them?" Williams asked. "I hope to find out many more."

"Oh, you will," Sara assured him, knowing that what she had in mind was probably the opposite of what he was imagining. Williams said he'd meet them upstairs in twenty minutes and Sara watched him walk away, wondering what the hell kind of arrangement she and Leonard had just entered into.

"One of your _things_?" Ray was obviously enjoying their predicament (perhaps glad it wasn't him suffering, for once).

"Yeah, is it my imagination or were you a little quick with that explanation?" Kendra asked.

Sara leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "It was the best I could come up with. I'd like to see either of you do better!"

"No way," Ray said, in a tone entirely too reminiscent of Leonard when he got on a roll (they could practically hear his smirk). "I've completely reversed my thinking on this evening. There's no better couple to pull this off than the two of you."

Sara wasn't sure if she should take that 'couple' thing as a compliment or an insult. "Thanks…I think?"

"I'm glad you're finding amusement at our expense, Raymond." Leonard was already thinking of ways to get back at him later.

"I have to find entertainment somewhere," Ray told them. "I wish I'd thought to record the audio from tonight for posterity."

"Actually," Hunter broke in, "Gideon records and stores everything unless you specifically ask her not to."

"Everything?" Leonard was dismayed. "Like even if we're sitting around the ship talking to each other?" He lowered his voice. "Even if we're alone and talking to _ourselves_?"

"That's quite the invasion of privacy," Ray noted.

"Yeah, it has to go against some kind of ethical or moral code," Len argued, in disbelief not only at the revelation, but that he and Palmer were on the same side.

"Where have you people been this whole time? Privacy and ethics have always taken a back seat to everything we do." Hunter's words were the verbal equivalent of a hand wave. "We blatantly spy on people _across_ _time_. Then we intervene to change things! Haven't you noticed?"

"So, just to be clear, anyone on the ship could access anything from my history?" Leonard asked.

"Well, obviously," Hunter replied, as if it were a given.

"I feel so violated," Leonard muttered, "and I can't tell if it's in a good way."

Sara managed not to roll her eyes, though it was quite the effort to restrain herself. "Would you relax? I'm sure no one's that interested in what you do when you're alone."

"Speak for yourself," Kendra said, "I'm all over this."

"She's kidding," Hunter said, followed by a few moments of silence. "Oh wait, no, she's actually searching the database. Guess she's not kidding, then."

"Kendra!" Len yelled. "Raymond, would you control your girlfriend/ex-girlfriend/fiancée, or whatever the hell you two are this week?"

"We're currently reevaluating the 'official' status of –"

"No one cares," Len interrupted, "and if you can't control her, then what good are you?"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Kendra said, sternly. "And would I really do that to you, Leonard?"

He didn't even have to think about it. "Yes, you definitely would."

"Maybe," she relented, "but I didn't. So contain yourself."

He sighed with a measure of relief. "Someone remind me when we get back to the ship that I have a few – uh, a lot – of records to delete."

"What do you _do_ in your spare time?" Ray asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Len said, as suggestively as possible, knowing it would send them all in the wrong direction. The truth, though, was that he had a habit of talking out loud when he was alone, mostly to try and work through problems. And lately his 'problem' was the woman sitting next to him.

The last thing he needed was for Kendra to stumble across one of his impromptu self-help sessions and report back to Sara that she was his current favorite topic. Then again, she probably had a better moral compass than that…right? But what about the others?

While he'd been lost in thought, the rest of them had started bickering about whether or not Gideon should be prevented from recording everything they did on the ship.

"Do the four of you have any _idea_ the amount of time wasted on immaterial conversations that have nothing to do with our missions?" Hunter asked.

"I'm sure you're going to tell us," Len sighed.

"Gideon?" Hunter prompted.

The AI's voice came over the comms, startling everyone: "57.2 minutes this evening have involved discussions that fit our captain's definition of 'immaterial'."

"You see?" Hunter demanded, triumphantly.

"That's unbelievable," Ray said.

"Yeah, seems like it should be much higher," Sara added, as the others murmured their agreement. "I figured it'd be close to two hours at this point."

"Gideon, who wins as the worst offender?" Ray asked, intrigued.

Hunter couldn't believe what he was hearing. "This isn't about 'winning'! The point –"

Gideon spoke right over his protests. "Leonard and Sara are the worst offenders this evening, accounting for 87.5% of the conversations that contribute nothing toward completing the mission."

"That's like a B+. We'll take it!" Sara exclaimed, as she and Leonard high-fived.

"Oh for…why do I bother," Hunter muttered.

"Please tell me that _this_ conversation – which _you_ began – is included," Leonard said – the irony would be too wonderful.

Their leader hesitated. "It's, uh, well…this one doesn't technically –"

"It meets the parameters our captain set," Gideon interrupted, apparently the final authority on the matter. "It has added 2.3 minutes to the total."

When Hunter started arguing that _his_ lectures shouldn't be counted, Leonard threw his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Had twenty minutes passed yet? Heading upstairs with Williams just might be a better alternative than listening to his team argue about nothing for the rest of the evening (and Hunter had at least one thing right – no one could do it better than them).

He turned his head to find Sara glancing in the direction of the stairs. "If all goes right, he should be unconscious within minutes," he reminded her.

"When does anything ever go right?" she pointed out.

"Don't jinx us," he warned, though he had to admit he was beginning to feel some trepidation, as well. That was highly unusual. Was her nervousness wearing off on him or was he subconsciously picking up on something else? He honestly couldn't tell. "This will be easy," he insisted, starting to feel like a broken record.

She didn't bother pointing out that his words could be a jinx as much as hers could. She'd rarely felt this way on other missions. Seduction was solidly in her wheelhouse and it had plenty of advantages as a means to an end. She never slept with anyone for a job, but kissing, flirting, and making all manner of promises had gained her access to numerous places. The method was so effective that she'd rarely questioned it. Occasionally she felt guilty or uncomfortable, but it was for the greater good and that was how she'd always justified it.

And now, for the first time, she simply _didn't want to do it_. Why was tonight different? Was she losing her touch?

What was _wrong_ with her?

She had a deep longing to go home. And she didn't mean to her current time – she meant to their ship and her team and the undeniable comfort both of those things gave her in a world where nothing was certain anymore. She never knew if she might wake up to an entirely different reality, but at least she knew and trusted the people who would wake up in it with her.

"We should go upstairs," Leonard said, and Sara wondered if she was imagining the reluctance she thought she heard in his voice.

She stood and smoothed down her dress. "I'm ready."

This wasn't even that bad. She'd gotten through much worse and so had the others. She had _no_ right to complain about this, not even to herself.

Williams must have told his people to give them access since security personnel parted for them when they reached the stairs and more staff gave directions to the master suite when they reached the second floor. The only thing keeping Sara from turning around was Leonard's steady presence behind her. It was tempting to open some of the other doors along the hallways on the second floor, but she resisted because they were being watched.

When they entered Williams' bedroom, they found they'd beaten him there.

"Mr. Williams will be up momentarily," one of the staffers informed them, pulling the doors shut behind him as he left the room.

"This is…something," Sara whispered. It reminded her of an extravagant hotel suite – the room was five times the size a normal bedroom needed to be and came complete with several sitting areas and French doors that opened up to a balcony overlooking the side lawn and gardens. Vases of colorful flowers and bowls of fruit were placed strategically around the room. There was even a smaller version of the bar from downstairs.

Leonard went over to admire the selection of alcohol available and flipped a bottle of Merlot that probably cost more than even Ray's designer tie. "Be honest, what did you think the odds were that we'd be walking into a dungeon?"

"I'm not exactly vanilla, but if there had been whips and chains in here, I'd be leaving you on your own."

"How discouraging. I thought you were more adventurous than that, darling."

She'd been inexplicably worried, had considered ditching their mission entirely, and he could _still_ make her smile. "I might be…if I were under the influence." Not of drugs, per se, but maybe the right person.

His eyes veritably lit up as he returned to her side. "Is that so? I'm sure that a guy who lives like this has handcuffs around _somewhere_. And if not, one of his many personal servants could fulfill that request pretty quickly. I recommend going for the real thing – those fake ones that anyone can escape from take all the fun out of it."

They'd both noticed the security camera in the corner of the ceiling which looked like it surveilled nearly the entire room. They'd been careful about what they said at normal volume, and with a shared look, decided to lower their voices from that point on. Leonard pushed her back against the wall and leaned down to kiss her shoulder – solely to limit his voice from carrying, of course.

"Don't you dare bring up handcuffs to him," Sara ordered, wondering if she should expand that to include _all_ forms of restraints (with her luck, Williams would be into that).

"I should tell you," Leonard continued, as if she hadn't spoken, "I taught myself early on how to escape them – out of necessity, you understand. So I can get out of the real ones in under a minute. It does involve dislocating a thumb, though –"

"You can skip telling us about your past experiences with law enforcement," Hunter cut him off, "as I'm sure you have enough stories to last the entire night."

Leonard frowned. "Who said anything about law enforcement?"

"Even worse," Hunter sounded pained.

"Are you trying to traumatize us?" Ray demanded.

"No, keep going. I want to hear more," Kendra insisted, as Ray theatrically gasped. (Sara strongly suspected she'd said it to get a rise out of him.)

"I always knew you were a wild one," Leonard said, approvingly. "It's impossible to live that many lifetimes without learning a few tricks along the way."

"You know it," Kendra returned, flirtatiously.

Ray hesitated a moment. "Kendra, I can't decide if you'd want me to back you up or if I should keep my mouth shut because a gentleman never kisses and tells."

Leonard fought the urge to bang his head against the wall for the sole purpose of knocking himself out. "I can assure you that _no one_ wants you to back her up, or God forbid, provide examples."

"And yet, somehow, you think we constantly want to hear veiled innuendos about your own life?" Ray countered.

"That's different." Leonard really thought it went without saying by now. "It's _me_."

"I can probably persuade Williams to turn off the camera," Sara said quickly, before he and Ray could keep arguing. Despite how the two of them loved antagonizing each other, they didn't have all night to waste.

"I have complete faith in you," Leonard said, and there was a serious note in his voice that had her watching him, searching for…what exactly?

His expression gave nothing away and she leaned her head back against the wall – she didn't even know what she'd been looking for. "In a half hour we'll be done and on our way back."

"I know something's different, that you don't want to be here." He waited for her to look at him again. "I don't want to be here, either."

She smiled, half-hearted though it was. "We've all done things we didn't want to do."

"Not like this," he insisted. "Next time we'll find another way."

Conversation on the other side of the door drew their attention and Williams swept in, clearly pleased to see them both. "I hope you've made yourselves at home," he said, heading straight for the bar to peruse his wine selection, ultimately choosing the one that Leonard had been admiring earlier (and Len wondered if that was deliberate, since there was a good chance he'd been watching them before entering the room).

Sara sensed her opening as she walked over to their host and ran her hand down his sleeve. "Why don't you let my husband open that while we become better acquainted?"

Williams sent her a lascivious grin and relinquished the bottle to Len. While Sara did her best to keep his attention, Len got to work pouring three glasses of wine. He had a vial of liquid sedative for one of the glasses, but he had to pick his moment and do it at the right angle so the camera didn't pick it up. He wasn't taking any chances that someone from Williams' staff might be watching.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" Williams asked, as Sara ducked another kiss from him and took one of the strawberries from a bowl near the bed. "I like a woman who plays hard to get."

"Then I'm just the woman for you." She held up the fruit for him to take a bite and glanced at Leonard across the room – he was minutely shaking his head at them, and she couldn't tell if he was more horrified or amused with what he was witnessing. Was it possible to be both? Horromused…amusified? No, neither of – she bit back a shriek when Williams took advantage of her distraction to throw her onto the bed. (How had she not seen that coming? Yet another example of how off her game she was tonight.)

Leonard froze in the act of walking over with the wine glasses, though he quickly regained his composure. "Don't hold back you two."

"Wow!" Sara tried her best not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation – it was certainly nothing she'd pictured when she'd stepped onto the Waverider that first day (or any day since then, for that matter). "Greg, you're so…strong."

"I work out regularly," he said, flashing her a grin.

Len handed Williams the wine glass with the sedative and Sara got to her knees on the bed to accept her own drink. To their dismay, Williams immediately set his on the nightstand without taking a sip. Sara put hers down, too, mind spinning with alternate plans. Both she and Len were capable of knocking him out, but not with people potentially monitoring the camera. From the amount of security they'd seen thus far, they'd be rushed in under a minute.

Sara moved to the side of the bed to put her arms around Williams' neck. "I'm up for almost anything, but I don't know if I'm comfortable with the camera. Are we being watched?"

"It's only for security," he assured. "I have a lot of valuables that people would love to steal."

"Tell me about it," Len said, somewhat enviously. "You have quite the art collection."

"If you hadn't noticed, I'm a man who likes to indulge in the finer things in life," Williams told him, proudly.

"We're not here to talk about art, I hope." Sara put on her most pleading expression for Williams' benefit. "Though I have to insist that you turn off the camera if you want anything else to happen tonight."

"It doesn't record," he claimed.

She let go of him and reclined on the bed. "It's entirely up to you. I hope you don't want us to leave."

"Alright," he relented, pulling a remote from a nearby shelf. Apparently he didn't want to miss a night with her. "I'll turn it off."

The light on the camera blinked out and they hoped that meant it was truly off and not a ploy.

Leonard had been trying to figure out how to get Williams to drink the wine. "I propose a toast. To new – and continued – partnerships. In both business and pleasure."

Sara took her glass from the nightstand and Williams took his – she'd been careful to note where they'd each placed them to ensure they wouldn't get mixed up.

"Agreed." Williams smiled broadly at them and they both relaxed when he took a sip. Sara did the same, drinking more than him (and Len only pretended to drink). She figured it was a nice vintage, no sense in wasting it.

Williams took her half-empty glass and pushed her down on the bed. (She supposed she should be grateful he hadn't thrown her that time.) He turned to Leonard. "So you enjoy watching your wife with another man?"

"Yeah," Leonard's voice was tight as he set his glass on the bureau with unnecessary force. "Love it."

"I'm sure we'll put on a fantastic show for you."

"Can't wait," Len said, rubbing his hand over his forehead to try and hide his irritation. He was having increasingly dark thoughts, like the desire to throw Williams off his own balcony for even looking at Sara, never mind touching her.

Sara was busy watching Williams, needing to anticipate his every move so she could counter them without seeming too suspicious. Her eyes widened when she realized what he was about to do, and she managed to roll away on the bed right before he dove onto the spot where she'd just been lying.

"Whoa there, cowboy. Let's warm things up, first. Maybe some more wine?" She'd keep drinking until she blacked out if it meant she could stall long enough for the drugs to kick in. Did he have some kind of superior metabolism? Gideon had told them it should only take a few minutes and yet nothing was happening.

"You _are_ a fun girl," Williams was telling her, and strangely, the outline of him seemed less sharp than it had before.

She ignored him and looked back at Leonard, surprised that she couldn't quite focus on him, either. She hadn't drunk _that_ much tonight…had she?

He could tell something was wrong. "Sara?"

"I don't…" her voice wavered as she tried to focus – on him, the room, the situation. Why they were there, what they were doing. She felt like a drunk trying to sober up and her efforts were making things worse.

"Had a few too many, have you?" Williams asked, voice sounding a million miles away.

"Sara!" Leonard snapped his fingers in front of her face and she regained some lucidity from a spike of adrenaline, though who knew how long it'd last.

Williams had moved to the other side of the bed and she tried to face him, except the bed wasn't the steadiest of surfaces and she lost her balance; she would have tipped off it if Leonard hadn't caught her arm. She managed to point at Williams in accusation. "You drugged me."

She'd been so concerned with drugging _him_ that the possibility he might drug _her_ hadn't crossed her mind. She hadn't watched her own glass closely enough; he must have slipped something in it after she set it on the nightstand. Or maybe the glasses were coated already – he had only taken a sip from his own (which, come to think of it, would also explain why their sedative didn't seem to be working on him).

Len was watching her with too much concern and it almost scared her.

"Of course I drugged you," Williams snapped. He'd acquired a gun while they were distracted, though it wasn't pointed at them. "I've known about you for hours, almost since you walked in."

"You knew?" Leonard asked, carefully, as Sara pulled away from him and moved toward the middle of the bed. He knew she was trying to get closer to Williams. The older man sent her a dismissive glance before turning back to Leonard, clearly viewing him as the only threat. He didn't give a second thought to the drugged woman on his bed. If he'd had any idea the things of which she was capable…

"You're art thieves," Williams announced, confidently. "You think I wouldn't figure it out? I saw you admiring my paintings all night. Then we got up here and the first thing you mentioned was my art collection? I'm not a fool."

"Art thieves," Len repeated slowly, trying to stall.

Ray had been waiting for a lull, not wanting to distract either of them at a crucial moment. "Sounds like things are getting dicey in there. Say the code word at any time if you want me to come in."

Leonard and Sara looked at each other, silently agreeing not to signal for him yet. There was a good chance they could get out of this (they'd gotten out of worse) and they'd rather that he helped them with any security left outside than enter the house and engage all the guards inside, possibly with guests getting caught in the crossfire. If people started getting hurt or killed, Hunter's precious timeline was going to suffer a sudden and drastic change.

"You were supposed to drink, too," Williams told him, as they both looked at Leonard's full glass.

"I wasn't thirsty."

"You're smarter than I thought. Still not smart enough, though."

Sara had gotten to the far side of the bed, pressing her hands to her eyes, and Leonard couldn't tell if she was acting or genuinely that disoriented. He silently hoped she'd stay with it long enough for them to get out of this.

"I thought something was off," Williams was explaining. "I asked around. People who should have known you – people who've worked with Invigoration – had no idea who you were."

"Is that all? We're simply new hires," Len tried.

"Please," the older man scoffed. "I thought about kicking you out, but waited to see what you'd do first, on the off-chance I was wrong and you were simply crashing my party for a good time. I do get plenty of newcomers." He grinned at Sara. "And who could pass you up, baby?"

"I'm flattered." She took a few deep breaths as the room tilted in front of her. She had to do something before she was too far gone.

"Why don't you tell me more about yourselves, Leonard and Sara Smith – if those are your real names, which I doubt. How'd you get on my guest list? How do you even know me?"

"We're good at what we do," Len shrugged, giving up on trying to convince him of their covers; it didn't matter anymore. "People talk."

He pointed the gun at Leonard, not so much a threat as for emphasis, and Sara almost stopped breathing. "I'm guessing you're the mastermind and brought your girl along for the ride. She was probably innocent before she met you, am I right?" Williams glanced at Sara. "You look like the type that's innocent."

It was all Leonard could do to not react to that statement.

And there was her chance – Sara seized it without hesitation. "Yes, he made me do it, he made me do _everything_." She'd successfully drawn his attention away from Len, and when he lowered the gun, she felt such a rush of relief that she dug her nails into her palms to ensure she wouldn't pass out.

"You were manipulated, I take it? Or maybe this is an act, too."

She ignored the questions and turned to Leonard, as if furious with him. She summoned every ounce of training she'd ever had and all the energy left in her. "You said we could walk right in, that I could just seduce him. Look where it got us. Look where we've ended up!"

He picked up on her plan and had to go along with it because they didn't exactly have time to devise another one (and she wouldn't be coherent for much longer even if they could).

"You _wanted_ to do this as much as I did," Len said, scathingly. It was easy to infuse his voice with the anger he was already feeling – at their plan going wrong, at her being drugged, at their _entire goddamn evening_. "You wanted the thrill and the easy money. Don't blame me for your own choices."

"Can you guess what I want now? A divorce!"

"We're not even really married!" he yelled, as she started throwing pillows, and he barely had to duck since her aim was so off. He _really_ hoped that was part of her plan. If she went for Williams and missed him by three feet…

"Then I'm going to marry you," she swore, "just so I can have the satisfaction of divorcing you."

Williams was becoming increasingly annoyed the longer they fought. "Do I look like your relationship counselor? I don't care about your problems, I care about _my_ problems. Now, what should I do with the two of you?"

"You could get rid of him," Sara suggested, moving closer to Williams on the edge of the bed. "You'd be doing me a favor…I could work for you. I could do _anything_ you wanted."

"I always knew you were crazy," Len threw out, moving toward the door, as if angry enough that he'd rather risk being shot than spend another moment in the same room with her. "Know what, you can keep her. Good luck!"

Williams took a step in Leonard's direction. "If you even think –"

Sara leapt off the bed, lunging at Williams with as much force as she could, making sure to hit him in the chest so that it knocked the air out of him and he couldn't yell for help. Leonard launched into action when she did and he was there in seconds, wrapping an arm around Williams' neck to cut off his air as Sara twisted his hand, forcing him to drop the gun. Once he stopped struggling, Leonard dropped him to the floor. Sara leaned heavily against the wall behind her, trying to catch her breath and stay upright, though both felt like impossible tasks. They waited a few seconds for any commotion from outside the room that would indicate security had been alerted – thankfully there was nothing.

"I can't believe you did that." He pushed her to sit on the bed. "Or…maybe I can." He wondered if he'd ever admired anyone more than he did in that moment.

"See, we get each other." Her words were starting to fade in and out. "This is why I like you so much."

Len reached up to turn off his earpiece and then knelt in front of Sara, doing the same for hers. "Do you want me to kill him?" It was so casual that she almost didn't understand the question.

She stared at him, trying to concentrate, trying to think. He would kill that man for her and the scariest part was how easy it'd be to say yes. "You can't."

"Think of what he might have done to us if he'd had the chance; he might have killed us. Or worse. Would it really be so wrong to kill him in turn?"

Her words were coming slower and further apart. "Someone told _me_ …that's not who we are anymore."

"No, I suppose it isn't," he admitted, "but for this team – for you – I'd do anything."

She looked into his eyes, seeing not only the truth of his words, but how much he cared for them. She wished she could find a way to explain that she more than returned the sentiment, but it was getting harder to think through the growing haze. "We'd do the same for you," she managed to say, and he could tell she wouldn't be able to stay conscious much longer.

He turned their comms back on. "Might need you to meet us outside, Ray."

"Already on it," their friend answered. "I'll be under Williams' balcony in a minute. There's a lot of security out here, but don't worry. We came up with a distraction."

Leonard figured he had maybe a minute or two to find the ledger. He quickly searched both nightstands – nothing. He ruthlessly shoved aside his frustration (plenty of experience with that) and rummaged through the bureau, throwing clothes out as he went. Relief flooded him when he found the ledger under a pile of socks. Tonight wasn't for nothing after all.

Sara was swaying in place on the bed, holding onto the footboard for minimal support. She was watching him as if she had no idea what he was doing or why. "I think…we should go."

He'd never shared a sentiment more in his life. He took her hand, pulling her off the bed and through the French doors, onto the balcony. Ray was standing on the lawn just below the railing and the drop didn't seem too far.

"I don't feel right," Sara said, and the only thing keeping her upright was his arm around her waist.

"You're going to be fine," he promised, just as a loud explosion sounded from the other side of the estate. Flames burst up into the sky and guards started yelling and running toward the fire.

"What…?" Sara trailed off.

"That'd be Mick," Leonard guessed, "lending a much-appreciated hand."

"Low-key," Hunter was complaining in their ears. " _This_ is your version of low-key."

Len helped Sara over the railing and Ray caught her before she could hit the ground.

"Ray!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. "You saved us, Ray."

"Sure, give him the credit," Leonard complained as he dropped to the ground beside them and looked around. There was no security nearby and it looked like their getaway route was clear.

"Glad it went well." Ray carefully escaped Sara's hold on him once he realized that she'd be content to hug him all night.

"It went _well_?" Leonard shot a pointed look at Sara in her drugged state and then waved a hand at the fire growing in the distance. "You sure have a way with words, Raymond."

"I try to look on the bright side," Ray said cheerily, as he took hold of Sara's arm and they started heading for the tree line, rental car waiting beyond.

Leonard did his best to shake off the entire night, catching Sara when she broke away from Ray and fell into him. "I think next time we should stick with good old-fashioned breaking and entering."

 **XXXXXX**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** So this apparently became an AU story (though who knows with this show…maybe by season 5 the cast will be the same as season 1 again?). This is the last 'official' chapter, but I'm finishing up an epilogue for this because I have a hard time letting go.

Thanks so much for the feedback!

 **XXXXXX**

Sara woke up in her own bed, which was normal. Then she remembered that she had no idea how she'd gotten there – which was definitely _not_ normal (well, hadn't been for a good number of years, at least).

Her dress was gone and she was in lounge clothes that served as her pajamas; Kendra had probably helped her out with that. She reached up to find her hair had been unpinned and she caught sight of the flowers on the shelf next to her bed (after the trouble they'd given her, she had a vague inkling that she might like to set them on fire).

The last thing she remembered was…oh great. She pressed her hands to her face as if that might erase the memories. She'd let herself get drugged and she could think of few things more humiliating. If she were still with the League, they would have found it unforgivable. At least a benefit to her current team was that none of them would try and banish her – or suggest that ritual suicide was the only way to keep her honor.

It didn't take League training to recognize the magnitude of her error, either. She knew better, she'd learned that lesson a decade ago, partying hard in her teens and quickly realizing that an unattended drink could mean disaster for an unfortunate victim. Two of her casual friends had been drugged while hanging around college parties, so she knew to always be on her guard. She wasn't a fan of blaming the victim, but it was something she _knew_ to watch out for, so how had she fallen for it? More importantly, what did the others think of her?

She hoped she might fall back to sleep, but her mind was racing. She checked the time – 6 am, so most everyone would still be sleeping, which was good. She wasn't sure if she wanted to face anyone, but maybe Hunter would be up (the man kept odd hours) and he could give her a summary of what happened after she passed out.

As she made her way through the empty corridors of their ship, she went over what she knew. Obviously they'd gotten back successfully, but the memories of the night were hazy after drinking the wine. She remembered snippets here and there – fighting with Leonard (something about divorcing him, which made no sense), Williams holding a gun on them, and had there been…an explosion?

Maybe more memories would come back with time. Now whether she wanted those memories back…

She stopped short when she walked past the kitchen – of _course_ Leonard was awake and seated at the table, reading on his tablet. Because where else would he be at 6:07 am? Certainly not in his own bed sleeping. That was too normal for him.

Stein was there, too, pouring some coffee, oh and there was Ray behind him, tearing open sugar packets for his own coffee. Fantastic.

Since when did everyone on this ship get up at dawn?

Stein smiled at her (sympathetically?) and then left before they could even exchange greetings. (At least _someone_ around here knew the proper way to act this early in the morning.) Was it too much to hope that Ray might follow suit?

"Hey Sara!" Ray said with what sounded like forced cheerfulness. He held his mug in front of him like a shield. "How are you feeling?"

She felt her face heat up, an uncharacteristic reaction, but his question was a reminder of her own carelessness. She rummaged through a cabinet so she wouldn't have to face him directly. "Fine. Strangely enough."

"Good! That's good to hear. I mean, what else would it be aside from good, am I right?"

She gave up her fruitless search and stepped over to get some coffee, too. Ray backed away so fast that some of his splashed out the top of his cup. He wouldn't quite meet her eyes, either. Now _that_ was interesting.

Len set his tablet down, clearly enjoying the interaction in front of him. "What Raymond's so _eloquently_ trying to say is that we're happy Gideon's calculations were correct – she took some blood and synthesized an antidote for the drug Williams gave you. She said it should neutralize the effects and prevent any hangover."

Sara was grateful for that. It was bad enough remembering how the night had ended – she didn't need to feel miserable on top of it.

"Yeah," Ray said, "that's what I meant." He looked like he wanted to add more and then thought better of it. He edged around Sara, carefully avoiding her by a three-foot-wide margin and then hesitated at the doorway. "Um, Sara?"

She'd taken a sip of her coffee, enjoying the way it burned slightly going down. "Yeah?"

"Can we talk later? When you're more awake?"

Ah, so there _was_ something bothering him. Probably an issue with Kendra – Sara had fallen into the role of de facto ship's counselor around here (and she couldn't figure out why since her track record with relationships was zero-for-who's-keeping-track-of-what-even-counts-at-this-point?). "Sure. You know I'm always here for you, Ray."

"Yeah," he agreed, voice cracking a little, then turned to Len. "I want my tie back, by the way."

Sara leaned against the counter behind her, directing her words at Len. "I don't see why you didn't just have Gideon make whatever you wanted, then you wouldn't have to steal from anyone."

"Because it's not half as much fun? Raymond, take Sara's advice and have Gideon make you another tie if you're so concerned."

"No, I want mine back. It's the principle, you shouldn't be able to get away with…well, _everything_ that you get away with."

"I'll get it to you later," Len brushed him off. "I have to compliment your taste, though. After we got back last night, I wasn't that tired, so I thought I'd make use of the time to brush up on some of my skills."

"…Skills?" Ray clearly forced himself to repeat the word.

"You know how I pride myself on being an escape artist?"

"No…?" Sara sounded skeptical.

"Nevertheless," Len continued, "I had Kendra tie my hands together and that material is surprisingly strong. She's actually pretty good at tying the perfect knot – you're a lucky man, Raymond. Anyways, there we were and I couldn't get out of it right away, until Kendra reminded me that there's this trick with your teeth –"

"Know what, you keep it. I suddenly don't want it back," Ray muttered.

"Hey, you're not the only one who lost out last night. I never got my suit jacket back because _someone_ ," he hitched his thumb over at Sara, "can't handle her illegal sedatives. Do you hear me complaining?"

"Isn't _this_ a complaint?" Sara asked.

He turned to her, mouthing 'Not the point' as if it were a secret Raymond didn't need to hear.

"Why don't you have Gideon make you another jacket?" Sara suggested. "It's amazing to me how you both ignore the obvious solution in order to keep annoying each other."

They both looked to the doorway to get Ray's take on that accusation, but he'd disappeared.

"Huh, you drove him away," Len remarked, as he felt Sara's unflinching gaze on him. "What?"

"Is any part of that ridiculous story with Kendra even remotely true?"

He smirked and shrugged, which she could have taken as affirmation it was true, or even refusal to answer, but she knew it meant that he'd made the entire thing up. (And when had she gotten so adept at reading him?)

"Would it be that hard to give Ray back his tie? Or to just honor simple requests, in general?"

"Absolutely. What kind of message would that send?"

"Oh, I don't know…maybe that you're a decent person."

"Exactly – can't have anyone thinking that. And in my defense, he should know that Kendra and I didn't spend any time together last night. I'm beginning to suspect they don't even _talk_ to each other. Though with the way Palmer prattles on about _atoms_ and whatnot, I can't really blame her."

"I think they're working through some things," Sara speculated, sure she'd hear about it later.

Len shuddered, as if the very thought were abhorrent. "The less we know about their personal lives, the better."

She slid onto the seat next to him, spinning her coffee mug around absently. "Did Ray seem like he was acting weird to you?"

"It's Palmer," he said, blandly. "For him, acting _normal_ would be the stretch."

She might be wrong, but she'd swear there was a glint in his eyes that said more than he was letting on. "You know, it's okay to admit you like him. Even if just a little."

"I absolutely do not," he gasped, horror-stricken, "and don't speak such a suggestion out loud ever again."

"Your act doesn't work on anyone," she hummed, tapping her fingers on the counter in a steady rhythm. "Not anymore."

 _Works on you_ , he somehow managed to stop himself from saying. Because that would get into the territory of too real and they certainly couldn't have that, could they? So he let her words pass without comment, and if she knew it was out of character for him, well, she said nothing either.

Sara was pretty sure she knew what was coming next. She steeled herself for his inevitable stinging remarks (jokes? accusations?) about letting herself get drugged – no one wielded words like a weapon as deftly as he could, and though she knew how to deflect him by now, this time she wouldn't. She knew she deserved it.

To her surprise, he studied her face for a minute and then asked, in a much gentler tone than normal, "So, you're okay?"

It was the same question Ray had asked, only reworded, and yet he sounded so earnest that she had to believe he was sincere. "Yes, I feel perfectly normal…and if I'm not mistaken, Gideon would have told you I was fine. Probably hours ago."

The way he quickly looked back down at his tablet told her that was _exactly_ what had happened. "Just checking."

Why did he need her reassurance? "We both know Gideon's more trustworthy than me. She wouldn't lie to you."

His head snapped back up. "Are _you_ lying to me?"

"No, I'm pointing out your irrational logic."

He didn't respond and she propped her head up on her hand, wondering what she was missing. Because she was missing _something_ , she simply didn't know what it was. Maybe he was trying to ease her into the lecture? It wasn't like him, but definitely possible if he felt sorry for her. She wasn't going to wait around for it – she at least had her pride left. Well, some of it anyway.

"Let's have it."

He frowned in confusion. "Let's have what?"

Was he kidding? "I'm sorry, Len."

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

"As if you don't know." When he merely shrugged and still looked lost, she continued, "For what I let happen to me."

"What you _let_ happen?" There was a tinge of anger in his words and Sara knew they were finally getting somewhere.

"I should have seen it coming."

"Not your fault," he informed her, and his voice sounded brittle, like it might break. If such a thing were possible. "It was mine."

"No, it wasn't."

"You were busy with Williams, playing a role – which meant I had to be the one looking out for us. I keep going over it. I don't…I don't know how I missed it."

"It might have already been in the wine glasses," she said, remembering one of her broken memories from the previous night, before the drugs had entirely taken hold. "I'm the one who was drinking. I know better."

"Stop blaming yourself," he ordered, sharply.

"No," she insisted, her own anger rising. How dare he tell her how she should react to the wrong choices that _she'd_ made?

He pressed his mouth into a thin line, looking as grim as she'd ever seen him. Probably remembering how their night had gone. "Fine. You're right."

She leaned back slightly, surprised he'd give in that easily. But…yeah, she _was_ right.

"You're clearly unworthy of being on our team," he explained. "Not a single mistake is allowed by anyone, _ever_. You know that none of us has ever made a mistake, or intentionally done something that led to disaster – especially not our esteemed captain or the moral upstanding citizens onboard, like me and Mick."

She tried to stop a frustrated sigh. "Leonard –"

"We're all perfect," he said, right over her, "and it's obvious that you're not, so I guess this is the end. We'll probably end up kicking you off the team. I'd say I'm sorry, but it's what you deserve, right? It's what you _want_?"

"Of course it's not what I want," she snapped, well-aware he was baiting her, but how could she ignore accusations like that? "I don't want to be anywhere else except here. With you – with _all of you_. And that includes knowing…being able to admit when I made a mistake. You _should_ be angry at me. Everyone should."

"Oh, I'm angry at you, but not because you made a mistake." He flung the words at her without any thought for how they'd land and what he said next cut as deeply as anything she'd been expecting all along: "Self-pity doesn't become you, Sara Lance."

"It's not self-pity!" she nearly yelled. (Or was it? How did he make her question everything she thought she'd known, including herself?) "It's taking responsibility."

"Wanting our scorn has nothing to do with responsibility. It has to do with wanting us to punish you in some twisted attempt to feel better. Now, you want to take real responsibility? Fine, but that means you have to accept that I was there, too, equally as responsible as you. You can learn from it and move on. Or you can beat yourself up forever –" he paused to let his words sink in, "– but I'm sure as _hell_ not going to do it for you."

She pressed her hands together, resting her forehead on them. She could practically hear the seconds ticking by even though there was no clock in the room. "Alright," she managed, barely audible.

"What was that?"

She made sure her tone was extremely unpleasant: "I said _alright_."

"Now that's what I like to hear. You bending to my will."

She laughed even though it was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. She could feel her anger and irritation lessening, despite desperately wanting to cling to them. "Someday you're going to have to stop doing that."

"What? Making you laugh? Don't make it so easy, then."

"And here I thought you loved it when I told you what to do."

"Depends on what you're telling," he said, flippantly. "I do wonder, though…is there ever going to be a day when a battle with you isn't so hard-won?"

"Guess you'll have to stick around and find out."

"Might be able to do that," he agreed, and she let the reassurance of his words wash over her like a promise. In the back of her mind, she'd always worried that one day he might say he'd had enough of their team, that he'd gotten what he came for, and he'd walk off the ship, never to return.

It was funny, because most of her life _she'd_ been the one walking away. She knew she'd hurt those she left behind, but she'd always rationalized it by choosing to believe they'd be better off without her in the long run, or that she'd return one day when things were better (when _she_ was better). She could see, now, what she'd unintentionally done to those she'd left in her wake (years and _years_ of people left behind her, some might not forgive her when she returned…some wouldn't even be there for her to ask).

And maybe she had to accept that all the things she'd been telling herself her whole life had merely been excuses…that leaving first had only ever been about ensuring that _she_ wasn't the one left behind.

She couldn't go back and fix any of her mistakes; all she could do was try not to make the same ones again.

This time she was going to stay. And (she was pretty sure) so was he.

Her mind drifted to her original questions about how their evening had ended. "I take it things worked out? My memories aren't that clear by the end of the night. Did something explode?"

Leonard visibly brightened at the memory. "That was Mick. Our captain wasn't too pleased – Mick didn't bother to tell him he was going to blow up the garage. To his credit, he made sure it was empty first."

"I wasn't going to ask," she said, because she didn't have to. She knew Mick by now and he'd come as far – no, _farther_ – than the rest of them. "I'm happy no one died."

"Nope. Not even any injuries. We turned over the ledger to the authorities with an anonymous tip and checked the timeline. The only thing we changed was that Williams gets arrested earlier, before he can ever fund his chemical weapons project. That means Savage never gets them and it's one less tragedy for the future."

She was almost afraid to ask her next question. "I remember being really excited to see Ray, too. I didn't say or do anything strange, did I?"

His pause was so slight that she almost missed it. "No, you were very grateful that he 'saved our lives' and kept repeating as much. And you promised to do anything for him at any time in the future. I'm sure you've noticed Raymond is…slightly more reserved than us? You made him pretty uncomfortable before you eventually passed out."

She gave him a light shove backwards – okay, maybe not so light since he had to grab the counter to keep from falling off the stool. "Why didn't you stop me?"

His expression told her that should have been obvious. "Because it was extremely entertaining to watch."

"Maybe that's why he seemed a little off this morning," she guessed.

He looked anywhere but at her. "Um…yeah."

She knew that tone and reached over to grab the front of his shirt, shaking it slightly. "What'd you do?"

"Nothing," he insisted, in a way that meant he was definitely guilty – of what, she didn't know.

"You're lying."

"Would I do that, Lance? Lie to you?"

She pulled him even closer, the move more threatening than anything else. "Tell. Me." When he only smirked at her, she huffed, letting go of him and then – oh no, she actually _stood up_.

"Okay." He held up his hands in an attempt at a truce, relieved when she sat back down. She probably had no real intention of trying to strangle him in the kitchen of the Waverider, but he wouldn't put it past her to try just to make sure he wasn't lulled into complacency around her. "I might have…told Ray that the drugs lowered your inhibitions and were causing you to reveal the truth."

She stared at him.

"And I might have successfully convinced him that you've secretly been in love with him for months."

She put her head in her hands.

"And he _might_ have started freaking out that he was going to have to break your heart and that's when I left the room because I couldn't keep a straight face anymore."

 _What the hell?_ "On what planet would he ever believe that I had a thing for him?"

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be," he said, as if she didn't know that by now. "I kind of implied that you kept your true feelings locked away out of respect for Kendra. But under the influence of the drugs, you just couldn't hide it anymore."

She was thoroughly confused, and she might have believed this to be another elaborate story if he weren't so dead serious (and clearly proud of himself…and slightly terrified of her – it was an odd mix). Still, she was having trouble grasping it. "But he likes to make jokes about the two of us!"

"Hmm, yeah, about that – I kind of led him to believe that I was jealous of your affection for him. On a semi-related note, we're going to have a duel the next time we're –"

"You're _what_?"

Leonard bristled. "He strongly insinuated that you choosing him over _me_ meant that you had much better taste than he'd thought and I couldn't let that insult pass me by, so I said high noon and he agreed."

"You are not having a duel!"

"I knew I should have told Gideon to keep you under somehow," he sulked. "Only to more fully recover, mind you."

It sounded like he'd written an entire skit and somehow gotten Ray to unknowingly play a part in it. She could only guess Ray was too flustered to really question anything Leonard told him. "How long was I out? It's like I can't leave you unsupervised. Ever."

He ran his fingers over the countertop, watching them make meaningless patterns, just so he wouldn't have to look at her. How was he supposed to tell her that he'd been awake all night, worried about what might happen to her? That even after Gideon had told him (repeatedly) that she'd be fine, he still hadn't been able to sleep? And that drawing Ray into a pointless fight was the only way he was able to forget, for just a few minutes, that she'd gotten drugged on his watch and that it might have been a situation neither of them got out of?

"I was bored," he said finally, as if nothing about what he'd done was worth arguing over.

"Were you?" she asked carefully, wondering about his borderline defensive tone.

He didn't answer that. "Just promise me that when you set things straight, I can be in the room."

"No problem. Hopefully he punches you and teaches you a lesson."

"What lesson would that be? Not to mess with Raymond? I'm not exactly shaking over here."

"Not to mess with _me_ ," she threatened, mildly.

"Then _you_ should probably be the one punching me," his voice had lightened. "I'm flexible, though. Whatever punishment you'd like to give me, I'll embrace it."

"You really shouldn't give me free reign like that," she warned.

He pushed his shoulder against hers. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can handle you."

She was abruptly reminded of how well he'd handled the guests at the party. She knew she probably shouldn't bring it up, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. "You went missing a lot last night."

"Doing recon. Talking to guests. The usual things we do…" He pinned her with a shrewd gaze. "Which you well know."

Great. He was suspicious now. "Yeah, I figured."

"Then why'd you bring it up? What's your real question?"

"Nothing. I mean, I don't have one."

"Lance."

She sipped her coffee to stall. It was getting cold. "I was just wondering if you met anyone…interesting."

"Maybe," he said, failing to add that he'd thought she was the only interesting person there (to be honest, he _always_ found her to be the most interesting person in the room). "What about you?"

She supposed that was a fair question, given that he had no idea her feelings on the matter (or for him). "Even if I had liked any of them, which I didn't, I have no interest in married people or that kind of lifestyle. Sharing partners…isn't my scene." She couldn't believe he'd found someone, though, and that fact was killing her. "So you _did_ like someone there?"

"Mmhmm. Actually, I'm shocked you didn't notice my connection with her."

Her eyes shot to his as she searched through her memories of last night. She didn't remember him spending a lot of time with any one person, but she had admittedly lost track of him several times and been distracted at others. And he was going to make her _ask_ for details, how galling. "Are you going to see her again? Like…if we ever come back to 2014?"

"I'll be seeing her much more than that," Leonard said. "What's our captain always saying? Time has a funny way of wanting certain things to happen."

Sara wondered if it mattered that _she_ didn't want it to happen. "How do you even know much about her after such a short time?"

"I have great intuition, you know. It didn't take long to see she's a real firecracker, might even be slightly crazy." He didn't bother hiding how enamored he was. "Gorgeous, intelligent, not afraid to fight with me. She thinks she's hilarious and won't admit that I'm _way_ funnier than her."

She wasn't sure how to process what he was telling her. "You're serious."

"It was like we'd known each other forever." He winked at her. "Hey, knowing the nature of time travel, maybe we have."

The more he spoke, the worse she felt, and she tried to hide her unhappiness. "This isn't another joke?"

"No joke." He watched her closely. "I brought her home with me, too."

"You _what_?" He must be insane to involve someone else in…whatever their team was doing. And how had he even managed such a thing without her noticing? She vaguely remembered that they'd both left the party with Ray and there hadn't been anyone else with them. Had he gone back after they escaped? Reckless, for sure, but he'd done stranger things. "How could you bring her _here_? Do the others know?"

"I certainly hope so. They'd be pretty blind not to notice."

"And they approved of that?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

She was almost beginning to wonder if she'd slipped into another timeline or something. None of what he said made any sense – and she generally cut him a lot of slack when it came to that area, too. "Sorry, I'm…surprised, is all."

He easily read the expression on her face and couldn't keep it going. "It's you, Lance. I came home with _you_."

She was simultaneously stunned and relieved, and she replayed their conversation in her mind, recognizing how it made sense in context. She breathed out in relief. "I thought –"

"You thought wrong," he interrupted. "I was sure you'd figure out what I was saying. You're not still suffering effects from being drugged, right?"

"I don't think so," she said, failing to explain that it was her own jealousy that had made her reasoning unhinged, not any effects of a drug she was no longer under.

He must not have thought her answer was good enough. "Gideon, is Sara –"

"Ms. Lance is completely fine and all effects of the drug were gone from her system several hours ago," Gideon responded. Sara found it interesting that the AI had answered a question Leonard hadn't fully asked…almost like he'd repeated it many times before. And did Gideon sound slightly exasperated? No, that couldn't be right.

"Good," Len said, turning back to her. "Remember what I told you at the party? I don't mix well with the wealthy, and let's not forget they were all married."

"I never thought that would stop you."

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think," he told her.

"I know I was the only one you wanted to take home," she tried to joke, remembering all the things he'd said about her and wondering how he'd meant them. As a friend? Or as…

Instead of laughing or teasing her back, he only sighed and said, "You know those times when you feel entirely alone in the world? Completely terrified or furious or lost? To the point that you've had it and you know that nothing – no one – can ever make it better?"

Damn, did she ever, and her look must have told him as much.

He lowered his voice. "Those are the times I want you around."

She tried to respond to that, but her voice completely failed her.

"And that's not to say I only want you there in the bad times," he continued, "it's more that I want you there _all_ the time. Sometimes you're the only person in the world I can stand. And I've tried to tell you so many times, Lance, but I swear, it's like you don't _get it_."

For a brief moment, she waited for him to smile, thinking it might be another one of his teasing compliments. But his words were serious and they didn't make sense, they _didn't_ , because he might as well have channeled her exact thoughts. And if he wasn't joking, then…

That had been a _confession_.

She felt dizzy, to the point that if she hadn't known the drug in her system had been neutralized, she would have thought it was still affecting her, too.

He'd felt the same as her?

Since _when_?

She considered why he might have avoided a serious conversation with her and could come up with only one reason: to protect himself. It was quite the jolt to realize that she had a real capacity to hurt him.

They were both guilty of not knowing how to face a truth that was becoming more apparent by the day.

"You've only ever joked about us," she whispered. "You never _said_ anything."

His face was grim (as if he didn't expect much – as if he _never_ expected much). "I've been saying it for a long time. You've always chosen not to hear me."

"How was I supposed to…" _know the difference?_

"I'm telling you now," he said flatly. "I'm telling you again."

She sat up straighter, putting her hands on his shoulders to keep him there, as if he were in danger of turning away. "I'm not the only one to blame for this," she insisted, feeling irrationally defensive. "Do you know why last night was so awful? It was impossible for me. Pretending…"

"What?" he challenged, too defensive to register the pleading in her voice.

"That I wanted to share you," she said, quietly.

She saw the instant he gave up – on fighting her, or himself, or whatever was between them. "Yeah," he agreed, as if she couldn't have said anything truer in the world. He reached up to his shoulders to remove her hands and when she resisted, he kept hold of both her wrists. She wondered if he was afraid she'd lash out or if he didn't want to let go of her. "Look, we're good at being friends, which is something we've both had difficulty with. I don't want anything to change that. If you'd rather forget –"

She surged forward to kiss him, and she had nothing for balance since he still had a tight grip on her wrists, but she didn't care – he could keep both of them upright. She must have stunned him, since he barely moved, and it wasn't until she pulled on her arms again that he released her. After that, he came back to himself quickly, threading his fingers through her hair and pulling her up against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss before he could beat her to it.

They'd shared an occasional quick kiss a few times before, all during past missions when they needed to use each other as a cover – even last night at the party. But they'd always been playing their roles (or at least, she'd thought they were). She'd never let herself think of it in terms of the two of them, _Leonard and Sara_. It was always the characters they were playing, and if anything ever felt _right_ , she'd always dismissed it as their familiarity and friendship with each other, nothing more.

Now there were no roles, no covers to hide behind, no excuses to explain away what she felt. She couldn't come up with any reasons why they shouldn't do this, and if she'd somehow managed, she would have ignored all of them.

He put his hands on either side of her head to push her back gently. She didn't want to go, but she allowed it anyways, keeping her eyes shut to try and gather herself.

"Sara Lance," he breathed, and she heard his worry as he spoke her name, "please don't tell me this was some kind of experiment to see if –"

She snapped her eyes open to meet his. " _No_. It's not. In fact, I'm beginning to think you were my problem the whole time."

He was less than thrilled and leaned back, though she tightened her arms around his neck so he couldn't get far. "That doesn't sound promising."

"I don't mean it like that. I'm talking about why the whole night felt strange, maybe I sensed that our relationship was more real than it was supposed to be. I _hated_ that party."

He'd noticed. "I wasn't a fan, either. It's an interesting lifestyle choice, for sure, but it's not for me. I tend to get…too possessive for that kind of thing."

"You? Possessive?" She grinned when he pressed a kiss near her ear. "I never would have guessed. I do want to ask, though…how come you seemed like an expert last night?"

"I'm an expert in a lot of things," he said, and he wasn't bragging, just stating a fact. "My only actual experience came from robbing similar parties. I'd usually get in with the caterers, and obviously most parties weren't for swingers, but I'd run across it occasionally."

She remembered her stray thought from the night before, wondering where he'd be if his upbringing had been different. If he'd never turned to a life of crime, following in the footsteps of his father.

She was silent long enough that he began to get worried. "Sara?"

"Just thinking about who I thought you were when we met. The bad guy putting on the good guy act to join us. Now I know it was the opposite – you were the good kid who had to play bad to survive. And then after a while you forgot how it began and started thinking you really _were_ that guy."

He was shaking his head before she finished talking. "Don't dismiss the things I've done. I can't. I _won't_. I'll never claim I was a victim of my upbringing, because no matter how awful life was, I made my own choices and a lot of them were wrong."

"What you just said should tell you how far you've come from those days," she told him. "You know that I've done terrible things, too." She was speaking of her own time as an assassin, and all the things she'd done before (and since) that she couldn't blame on the League. "If you can't forgive yourself and accept that things are different now, that _you_ are different, it'll bury you alive."

Yeah, he'd figured that one out, too. "This team saved my life. My circumstances changed and along with them, so did my priorities." The very things he _lived for_ had changed. It wasn't about money or power anymore, it was about the people around him. He'd return everything he'd ever stolen if it meant keeping the people he loved safe – but that still didn't make him who Sara seemed to think he was. "You saw earlier tonight that I still wanted to kill."

"You wanted to protect me," she corrected, "and I wanted to say yes. But I didn't. And you certainly didn't have to ask me, but you did, because you _knew_ I'd say no."

"I don't know if that's true," he said (and he honestly didn't).

"Even if I hadn't been there, I know you wouldn't have gone through with killing an unconscious man. When are you going to admit that things didn't just change _around_ you, Leonard? You changed as much as your circumstances did. When you joined us, you were making a decision to leave that life…even if it took you some time to admit it."

She always gave him too much credit. (If anything, he felt she had more to do with his shifting priorities than he did.) "Maybe I only joined this team because I wanted an excuse to share close quarters with a beautiful girl."

She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I'm extremely flattered."

He frowned. "Did you think I meant you? Sorry, Lance, I was talking about Kendra."

She tried _really_ hard not to smile at him. "You like making things difficult on yourself, don't you?"

"It's practically a compulsion at this point," he admitted, knowing she was in on the joke this time. "Unfortunately, she had that weird reincarnated soulmate thing going on, and then she liked _Raymond_ , of all people, so it quickly became clear that she was close to insane. That's about the time when I thought 'forget it, I think I'll love that blonde girl, instead'."

"What?" she breathed.

"Okay, maybe we can't technically call her _'_ insane' for liking Raymond. He can be tolerable at times. Rare times, sure, but –"

"No, that part at the end…you _love_ me?"

Now he was actually confused. "I thought you knew that already. I guess I should have been more clear."

"No, I should have been listening better. I love you, too."

He fell silent, playful air vanishing.

"Len?"

He blinked himself back to reality. "I'm trying to remember the last time I heard those words."

"Lisa?" she asked, hopefully, heart turning over for him.

"It's possible, though my sister and I were never big on talking about our feelings." He shrugged, as if he couldn't care less (as if it _didn't matter_ ). "I guess I just…don't remember."

"Well, _I_ remember," she told him, voice breaking on words that were as vehement as she could manage. "It was seventeen seconds ago. In this very room."

He kissed her again, suddenly, and with so much need that she wanted to cry. She kissed him back, trying to pour as much emotion into it as she possibly could. She might never be able to make up for the lack of love he'd had in his life, but she was damn well going to try. (She'd been trying for a long time, already, even if she hadn't realized it.)

When they broke apart, she leaned into him, pressing her forehead to his shoulder and listening to him breathe for a minute. "I feel like you look at me and see a better person than I actually am," he eventually said.

"I see exactly who you are." She was completely sure of that, even if he never would be. She also knew it was getting too dark for both of them and she couldn't let them fall back into thinking about the bad things – not when there was too much light to look forward to. "Hey, if we're going steady now, I might accept your class ring after all."

He laughed at her reference to his joke from the previous evening. "I told you I had to look for it. I think I lost it a long time ago, but if I can find it, it's yours."

"I'm holding you to that," she swore.

He knew she was mostly teasing – Sara Lance didn't really care about jewelry. And she most _certainly_ didn't care about rings.

(That didn't mean he wouldn't give her one anyways.)

 **XXXXXX**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** This is what happens when I try to write a 'brief' epilogue! This pretty much turned into a one-shot sequel to the events of the first 4 chapters, and it's many months later (consider Savage long gone by this point) and everyone is happy and together on the ship, where they will continue along with no tragedy ever in sight.

One final time, thanks again for all the feedback, I loved writing this story and it makes me so happy that other people enjoyed it, as well. And thank you, Tavyn, for helping make this better, as you always do. (I'm going to have to make a permanent author's note thanking you, I think.)

 **XXXXXX**

Sara spun back and forth restlessly in the captain's chair, having tuned out of her team's conversation long ago. They were discussing their recent visit home, mostly in an attempt to kill time while they waited before they could take off again.

And the reason they had to wait?

Leonard, of course.

"That isn't a carnival ride," Hunter told her sternly. "You're going to break my chair."

She kicked her foot out to stop the chair mid-spin. "How flimsily are these things built? Do you not have any…spaceship construction standards in the future?"

"On the contrary, Ms. Lance," Gideon began, "starting with the tragic timeship collision of 2085, it became standard practice to outfit all new –"

"Gideon," the captain broke in, "please don't entertain Sara's questions as if she really cares about the answers. We all know she's just trying to annoy me."

"Maybe I really wanted to know," Sara argued.

"I can send a 225-page compendium on the topic to your tablet," Gideon offered.

"Uh…" Sara hesitated, "don't trouble yourself, Gideon."

"It's no trouble, Ms. Lance."

"Great, thanks," Sara mumbled.

The captain wisely refrained from engaging her any further on the topic. "Where _is_ he, Sara? Everyone was supposed to be back an hour ago."

"I'm not his keeper," she reminded him (like she _always_ did whenever he had an issue with Leonard). "Besides, him being an hour late is the equivalent of a normal person being three hours early." He'd texted to say he had some 'business' to take care of, and knowing him, that could mean literally anything. She hadn't questioned him further, figuring that if he wanted her to know, he'd have told her.

"If even Sara can't get him back here, I can only imagine what he's doing in Central City," Jax said. "Or rather, what laws he's breaking."

"Hey, he's reformed!" Sara insisted, as everyone cast her looks that ranged from mild skepticism to outright disbelief. "Let me amend my statement – he's as reformed as he's going to get."

"Over an hour late," Hunter was complaining, mostly to himself. "It's like he doesn't own a watch or a phone or understand how time works at _all_."

"I think it's more that he doesn't care," Ray pointed out.

"Cut him some slack," Kendra said. "I was late too and just got back myself. He could be…stuck in traffic."

"I've been trying to get a hold of him all morning," Hunter sounded almost as if he were sulking. "I swear he's ignoring my texts."

"Maybe he has poor service and isn't getting our messages," Stein suggested, giving Len the benefit of the doubt.

"Let me try," Ray said, pulling out his phone and typing a message to Leonard. And then he kept typing. And typing. And –

"Are you asking him when he'll be back or writing him a letter?" Sara asked.

"I'm explaining that he's already late and it's not polite to keep us waiting." Ray's phone vibrated, right on cue. "Would you look at that," he said smugly, "he's written _me_ back already."

Sara tried to hide her smile. "Congratulations, Ray."

Ray held up his phone to read the text out loud. "'Palmer, I thought that I blocked all notifications from you along with Hunter.'"

"He _blocked_ me?" Hunter gasped.

"Well," Ray said, ever upbeat, "at least he responded!"

"How could he block me?" the captain was saying. "Gideon has full control over our communication devices – both comms and phones."

"That's straight from _1984_ ," Jax said, disapprovingly. "Don't people in the future read classics? Though based on the things that I already know Gideon does, this probably shouldn't surprise me anymore."

"The implications of an over-reaching government are quite terrifying," Stein agreed.

"In the future, we get a lot of our ideas from 20th century literature," Hunter said, and no one could tell if he was serious or not. "Where is Mr. Snart right now, Gideon?"

"I'm afraid I cannot answer that since he's disabled the GPS locator in his phone."

"Gee, I wonder what his possible motives could be for doing that…" The implication of Jax's tone wasn't lost on anyone.

Their captain was clearly upset about being ignored – as if Len didn't do that to everyone. "Maybe we should take off without him."

Mick motioned for him to come closer. "Comments like those are going to be how you lose your ship one day."

"Please, Mr. Rory, I think the two of us are past –"

"Not me." Mick held up his hands to demonstrate his innocence, and then pointed to the captain's chair.

Hunter turned to see Sara staring at him in that emotionless way he always found terrifying. "It was a joke, Ms. Lance!"

"Jokes are supposed to be funny."

"I thought it –" Jax abruptly cut himself off when Sara's eyes shot over to him, "– wasn't funny. It definitely wasn't funny in any way."

"I would never actually…" Hunter tried to insist, voice fading when he had an eerie sense that Sara knew exactly what he was thinking. He was getting too lax if the members of his team could read him that easily.

Her next words confirmed his suspicion. "You want to do it. You probably think you'll be 'teaching him a lesson' or something, and that you'll return five minutes later. It'll be super hilarious, right? Sure, everything's fun and games…unless something goes wrong and he's stuck here for years just like you left us in 1958, and so help me, if you do that to him, you'll be _lucky_ if the only thing I do is remove you as captain of this ship."

Mick raised a hand in case she was looking for volunteers. "I'll happily throw him in the brig if you want. We don't have to wait until he leaves Leonard behind – I'll do it right now."

"Very funny," Hunter scowled at him, "but I doubt Gideon would let you lock me up."

Mick smirked at him. "Sure you want to take that bet? Gideon and I are becoming friends."

"That's ridiculous. She's an AI, she doesn't have friends."

Sara shrugged. "Or is that what she _wants_ you to think?"

Hunter was sure she was kidding…right? "Gideon, can AIs have friends?"

"No," Gideon said, instantly.

"See?" he declared.

"I told her to say that to throw you off," Mick informed him.

"Gideon, did Mr. Rory – no, you know what? I'm not getting pulled into this nonsense any further. You lot are _maddening_. You'd do well not to test me."

No one challenged him on it, but they knew his threat was empty – especially with Sara sitting five feet away, ready to take control of the ship if he so much as hinted again that he might leave Leonard behind.

That said, Sara didn't want to wait another week for him to show up, either. "I'll see where he is," she relented, pulling out her phone to text him. As if the universe were summoning him, the moment she hit 'send', Len walked in as his phone chimed.

"Hey guys, miss me?" He pulled out his phone to read her message. "'Get back here now before I make you suffer'…" He looked over at her. "What kind of suffering are we talking about?"

"I'll leave it up to your imagination for now."

"That's your first mistake." He crossed the room, placing his hands on the arms of the chair to lean over her. "I can almost guarantee that we're not thinking of the same torture methods."

She pulled on his sleeves to get him closer. "I can almost guarantee we are."

"Your strategy's backfiring; it's only making me more inclined to be late in the future," he warned, kissing her briefly. In his life before, he'd rarely shown displays of affection to anyone he had a relationship with (if 'casually dating' passed for a relationship) – and especially not if other people were around. There was something about her, though, that made him change the rules he'd lived by for so long.

She changed _everything_.

"I like this look," he said, pulling away from her so he could stand up straight. "You in the captain's chair. Did we finally vote Hunter out while I was gone? You should have waited for me so I could see the look on his face!"

"That look?" Sara asked, as Leonard turned to find their captain glowering at them.

"Actually, yes," Len nodded. "That works."

Hunter wasn't amused. "What is with you two? First Sara threatens to oust me, now you show excessive enthusiasm at the prospect – should I be worried about waking up one day stranded in some random time with the rest of you gone?"

"Yes," Len told him at the exact moment Sara answered, "No."

The captain laughed uncomfortably. "Right, well…good thing I know you're only kidding, Mr. Snart."

Leonard's expression wasn't that reassuring, though he didn't directly respond to Hunter's statement. "Judging by the fact that Gideon informed me I have 26 unanswered messages from everyone, it's apparent to me that none of you know what the hell to do without me. I would say that I didn't know I was essential, but…I'd be lying."

"Here's something we actually _can_ vote on," Hunter offered. "Who thinks Mr. Snart's business in Central City was illegal?"

Everyone raised their hands except Sara.

"Thank you, my dear," Leonard said, pointedly. "Good to know someone around here has my back."

"I don't _think_ it was illegal," she told him. "I pretty much _know_ that it was."

"Hey, I'm reformed," he argued, unknowingly echoing what she'd said ten minutes earlier. No one seemed particularly convinced.

"We're right though, aren't we?" Kendra asked. "Or are you going to try and claim that everything you did on your visit home was strictly within the confines of the law?"

"What _is_ the law, really?" he asked, thoughtfully. "Who has the authority to make it? If you ask me, 'legality' is really a gray area that we could discuss for hours. What's legal in Central City might not be legal elsewhere. In fact, time itself can change our opinions about what –"

"What'd you do?" Sara asked flatly, well-aware that when he started prevaricating with philosophical questions, he was about as far from innocent as he could get.

"Leonard actually raises some great questions about the nature of moral…" Stein trailed off when Sara glared at him. "Never mind, carry on."

"You people are always suspicious of me," Leonard complained, and no one missed that it wasn't a strict denial. "I find it insulting, I really do."

"Are you being serious right now?" Mick asked. "Or is this some kind of bit? I can't tell."

"Why is everyone asking so many questions?" he stalled, trying to think of ways to get them to stop harassing him (they were going to ruin this, he just knew it). "If I'd wanted to be interrogated today, I'd have strolled into the Central City PD for a reunion with all the officers who know me well and probably miss me."

"Tell me there are no warrants issued for your arrest at least." Sara was clearly hopeful.

He mulled it over. "There aren't…I don't think."

"You don't _think_?" Kendra repeated.

"Let's say there are none that I'm aware of, but never say never," he joked. "We should probably take off quickly just in case." No one laughed.

"Is whatever you did going to plague us the next time you return home?" Hunter asked, wearily. He was hoping for _one_ trip where he didn't have to clean up after everyone and was beginning to think that would never happen.

Leonard considered the implications of the question. "I don't know if 'plague' is the right word, but it should have a lasting impact, that's for sure."

Hunter wondered if that meant that what he'd done was much worse than they imagined.

"You can be honest with us," Ray offered. "It's not possible for us to judge you any more than we already do."

"That reminds me," Len said, taking out his phone and tapping a few icons. "You're now officially blocked."

"Seriously?" Ray pulled him aside to try and prevent the others from overhearing. "You'd do that to me when I happen to know the content of those conversations you had with yourself in the recordings you thought were gone forever?"

"What! Gideon, how could you let him recover –"

"Oh no, I beat you to it," Ray clarified, and he couldn't help gloating about finally getting one over on Leonard. "I made backups of everything before you got around to erasing them."

"You're bluffing," Len stated, crossing his arms.

"Am I? Then how about the fact that even before you two were in a relationship, you were thinking about a future where –"

"Alright!" Len quickly cut him off.

"What about the future?" Kendra asked, much too loudly.

"Nothing. _N_ _othing."_ Len grabbed Ray's arm and dragged him until they were practically in the doorway of Rip's office _._ "What are you doing?" he hissed. "Who trained you in the art of subterfuge? Barry Allen?"

Ray frowned. "What?"

"He's terrible at – forget it. I don't have time for this."

"Are you mad I was a step ahead of you this time?" Ray sounded quite pleased with himself.

Len decided to remind him that he wasn't off the hook yet. "No, I'm surprised. I always took you as someone with high moral standards. Or at least, I _did_."

Ray's attitude changed in an instant. "I had to know if you were serious about her." When Leonard's expression didn't change, Ray explained, "I love her, too."

"Seriously, Palmer? Do you want to be with _every_ woman you come across?"

"I don't mean it that way," Ray sighed. "She's my friend, and even though you are, too, I know how you are. Or rather, how you _were_. If this was a game or you weren't serious, I was going to have to teach you a lesson."

Len was mostly amused. "Were you, now?"

"Yes," Ray refused to back down. "I was."

Rather than irritation or lingering anger, the only thing Ray saw on Leonard's face was growing respect. Other than looking out for Sara, there probably wasn't any excuse that Leonard would have accepted for the invasion of privacy.

Len hit a few more buttons on his phone. "You're officially unblocked. Let me state, for the record, that I'm unsure how I'll go on living in a world where you've outwitted me."

"If you feel betrayed, I'll happily give you access to every conversation I've had with myself since the mission started. Like all the nights I've had alone before bed. Or when I'm working in engineering alone. Or exercising in the gym alone. Or –"

"No," Len said, hurriedly. "I don't need to be tortured on top of being threatened."

"Come on, you must know that I'd never actually share them. I only listened to enough to see how you really felt about her. I found it very…enlightening."

"Keep your voice down, and for God's sake, stop _smiling_ ," Leonard ordered, sharply.

"I can't help it, I'm just so happy about –" he cast his eyes around the room before landing on Sara, "– um, various things. I'm happy about random things that have _nothing_ to do with anyone in this room."

Leonard wasn't sure if Ray knew exactly what he was planning to do, but it seemed like he did. And the other man's complete inability to control himself was going to give everything away. "Shut. Up. Palmer."

"No need to worry about me," Ray swore. "I'm practically a vault." He mimicked locking his mouth and throwing away the key.

Oh yeah, Leonard knew he was screwed if he didn't do this now. "I want everyone to know that although I _want_ to do this of my own free will, you've forced me to act sooner than I intended. I can't wait anymore or there'll be no surprise. If there's even any left at this point."

"You got us a surprise?" Jax asked, perking up at the words.

"Yeah, Jax, I was over an hour late getting back because I was shopping for _you_."

"You didn't have to go out of your way to –"

"He didn't," Stein whispered to him as Jax immediately stopped talking.

Len sent the professor a look of gratitude before turning to catch Sara's eyes across the room. She was still in the captain's chair, scrutinizing him with far too much concern for his liking. "Heads up, Lance," he said, tossing her a small box. "Don't underestimate what I went through today. I looked everywhere."

She instantly knew, without opening the box, that he was talking about his class ring. "I can't believe you found it after so many years."

"You'd be right, because I _di_ _dn't_ find it. I looked through all the belongings Lisa kept for me, but it was long gone."

"It's not a big deal," she assured him. She didn't care about _things_. As far as she was concerned, she already had what she needed – all the people who lived on this ship with her.

"I made up for it," he told her. "At least, I hope I did."

She wondered what kind of kitschy, ostentatious piece of jewelry he'd found in some store or another. It was probably something awful that would serve as an inside joke. "Don't tell me you went and spent money on –" she broke off when she opened the box.

"I went to seven different pawn shops before I found one."

It was a class ring from his year. She carefully took it out, noting that it had the initials of his high school and the graduation year scripted in silver over a black inlay. Rather than the typical birthstone in the middle, it had a depiction of the school's crest. She turned it over to read the inscription and then looked at him.

"Yes, I know it says _James Hargrove_ – he was one of the 'good kids'," Len liberally used air quotes, as if that was a terrible thing to be. "I was planning to re-engrave it before I gave it to you, but like I said…my timetable got moved up."

Sara said nothing; she just stared at the ring.

"Do you know how many people get rid of those over the years? The answer is _a lot_. I must have looked through hundreds of rings. I can't imagine they get much for them, but…" Len had no idea if he was filling the silence to explain how hard it had been to find, or if he was rambling because he was worried about her reaction.

Sara had no idea what to say, virtually speechless for the first time in a long time. He'd gone to so much trouble and effort just to fulfill a teasing offer (a _promise_ ) he'd made her and no one else had ever – no one else _would_ ever put that much thought into something like this for her. He'd done it for the mere reason that he thought it would make her happy…and it did.

She felt her eyes well up with tears and couldn't stop them, no matter how hard she tried.

"Is it too strange?" Len asked, worried. "I was hoping the symbolism would outweigh any potential cons of giving it to you. It was a…calculated risk. It's completely fine if you don't want it. I just thought…"

"No," she finally said, as she wiped the tears away from her eyes, "it's perfect. I love it."

He let out the breath he'd been holding. "There's one more thing and it kind of goes along with the ring."

"Yeah?" she asked, absently, as she tried it out on different fingers. They'd have to resize it, or maybe –

"Lance, you have to spend your life with me because I can't spend the rest of mine without you."

She snapped her gaze up to meet his; if she'd been shocked at the lengths he'd gone to for a ring, she didn't know if there was a word to describe how she felt hearing those words.

Ray was the first to recognize what he was witnessing (probably because he'd been expecting it all along). "Hey, is this…are you asking her to marry you? Right now? In front of everyone?!" He couldn't contain his excitement, and his questions got everyone's attention as they realized what was happening.

Leonard and Sara both turned to look at him.

"I don't know, Palmer. Am I?"

"Oh sorry," Ray offered, sitting down in one of the chairs halfway between the two of them so he could have a front row view. "Go on, go on."

Len wanted to be annoyed, but when he looked at Sara, he was on the verge of laughing. "You realize this is how things are always going to be from now on, right?" He motioned to their half dozen, awestruck witnesses. "And I actually think I can deal with that if I have you here with me."

"Okay, but where's the actual question?" Ray whispered, dodging when Leonard reached over to try and hit him.

"Do you want to take over? Maybe you'd do it better."

"I'm sorry," Ray said again. "I just never thought it would happen this way."

Sara still hadn't spoken and Leonard hoped against hope that she was still too surprised – that her silence wasn't a bad sign. "I thought that could serve as an engagement ring. I know it's not typical, but it felt more…right than anything else." He'd initially been considering something much more routine, like a diamond ring over a quiet dinner, but when had they ever done anything by the book?

Perhaps more than that, if he'd gone the traditional route, it never could have conveyed what she meant to him. It just…wouldn't have been _enough_.

Stein was about to tell Leonard he was doing this all wrong, but the look on Sara's face contradicted that; her expression indicated there was probably _no way_ he could ever do this wrong.

Not that the others agreed.

"Technically, you still haven't asked her a question yet," Jax pointed out to Leonard in a stage whisper.

"He probably doesn't want to give her the option to refuse," Mick added, rather unhelpfully.

Len rolled his eyes. "Thanks, partner."

"Anytime."

"You want to marry me," Sara managed to say, considering it a feat when her voice was at least marginally steady. She kept twisting the ring around in her hands.

"I want to be with you forever, in whatever way you'll have me."

"This might be the most romantic thing I've ever seen," Kendra sighed, unable to tear her eyes away.

"This is romantic to you?" Jax couldn't believe it. "You've lived dozens of lifetimes and _this_ is the best you've seen? He basically ordered her to marry him! I do _not_ understand women."

Kendra and Jax started bickering over what constituted 'romance' and for once, Sara was grateful for, well, the way they were. Because they'd inadvertently allowed her some extra time to rearrange her world. As it was, she was still overwhelmed to the point of…

She'd given up on imagining this when she'd almost died on a yacht in the middle of the ocean. She'd realized, as the world was fading around her, that her whole life up until then had been a series of selfish and foolish decisions based on a mere fantasy of what she thought love was.

Before the _Queen's Gambit_ , her imaginings had never been based in reality. Reality was remembering the way she'd betrayed her sister. Reality was gasping for air and breathing salt water instead. Reality was accepting how many poor choices she'd made in her life and coming to terms with the fact that she was going to die for them.

She hadn't pictured 'forever' with anyone, not after that day. She hadn't let herself think of the possibilities because that was usually the time when dreams were cruelly destroyed; there was no point in imagining a future that might never happen.

She took things one day at a time, and with Leonard, the days had been good. Better than good. Better than she'd hoped a relationship could be. And now he was asking her to…take a leap of faith.

She wanted (more than anything) to jump along with him. But change was risky and dangerous and terrifying. Marriages failed all the time – she personally only knew of two or three that had worked long-term out of the dozens of relationships in her circle of family and friends. And based on her own poor track record, she couldn't help thinking, _What if this is the thing that undoes us?_

She felt the initial stirrings of panic at the thought of losing him, which really didn't make sense when he was asking the exact opposite of her.

(Why couldn't he let things be? Why couldn't he see that changing the status quo invited the potential for disaster? Why couldn't they just take things day by day until there _were_ no more days?)

Why had he come to kneel in front of her?

He said nothing, lightly resting his arms on her knees, and she knew from his expression that he was waiting for her to tell him what was wrong.

She leaned forward in the chair, keeping her voice low. "This…this would be _permanent_."

"That's kind of the idea. There's always an out though; you could divorce me down the line."

She knew he was joking, but the thought made something inside of her hurt. "No, I _couldn't._ "

"Then it sounds like we're on the same page." He ran his fingers over the back of her hand, the same hand that was closed tightly around the ring he'd given her. "So what's actually bothering you?"

It sounded silly, even to her own mind, but she had to ask: "You don't think we'd be tempting fate?"

"We've done that dozens of times. And we're still here."

"I know, but…good things don't last for me," she whispered.

"Have you _met_ me? Take a look at any page of my history – you know it rivals yours."

"If we're both so bad at life decisions, in general, then why would you want to take that risk?"

"Because that's what we do, Lance. That's who we _are_. We take risks every day for other people – we can damn well do it for each other, too."

She inhaled shakily, knowing he was right. "If you really want to tie your future to mine –"

"I already made that choice a long time ago. This would only make it official. But we'll do whatever makes you happy."

"You make me happy," she said, and though her voice was quiet, it was as firm as it had ever been. "And marrying you would make me happy."

"Your guys' love story makes me happy," Ray broke in, and if Sara weren't mistaken, he sounded a little choked up. They turned to see he'd moved to the chair nearest them, where he'd apparently been hanging onto every word they said.

"That's what we're here for," Len quipped, as Ray turned away and subtly wiped his eyes, "to make _you_ happy."

"I hesitate to interrupt," Hunter began – as if he'd ever made it a point to hold himself back, "but did you two actually reach a decision, or…?"

Sara realized that outside of Ray (since he'd been weirdly close to them), no one else had heard what she and Leonard said to each other.

"No one will blame you if you run, Sara," Mick told her, unable to resist. Plus, he knew her answer already – it had been obvious to him long before Leonard even decided to ask the question.

"I don't run away from the people I love anymore," she told Mick, as they exchanged a knowing look (because neither did he).

"Please, you two, don't let me get in the way of your _moment_ ," Len said, though he was clearly happy that they'd become much closer friends.

Sara finally ended their team's impatient suspense. "Yes, we're getting married."

The second she confirmed it, the room erupted into chaos with their friends clapping and cheering for them. Sara was smothered in hugs, and though it was far more contact with other people than she'd had probably in the entire month prior (aside from Leonard), all she could do was laugh and accept it.

A quick glance over revealed that Len was also allowing the others to show their congratulations by hugging him. She wished the past-him who'd initially joined their team could see into the future to this very moment and witness how his life was going to change. He probably wouldn't have believed it – she certainly wouldn't have. And definitely not if her past-self had been told that the man she'd thought would quit the team before ever opening up would eventually become her reluctant ally, then her friend, then her best friend, then –

He was _everything_.

When she saw him hug Ray, _really_ hug Ray and not pretend for a second before pushing him away, she felt herself getting teary again. It was a strange thing to be so happy that she felt like crying from it.

The professor embraced her, kissing her on the cheek, and then went over to shake Leonard's hand (and Leonard pulled him into a hug instead). Sara watched them, smiling, before looking down at the ring clenched in her palm. She carefully placed it on her left ring finger, tilting it back and forth so the silver caught the light. It was too big, but she didn't care; she just wanted to see how it looked.

"Not exactly conventional," Kendra said, from next to her.

"Neither are we."

"No," her friend laughed, "you certainly aren't."

"Do you get it?" Sara asked, softly. "Nothing else he could have gotten would have meant…"

"I do," Kendra said, hint of wistfulness in her voice. "I hope one day I get to feel again what you do now."

After everything with Carter, and then her and Ray deciding to take a break a few months back, Sara hadn't even thought about how Kendra might be feeling. "I'm sor–"

"Don't you dare apologize. I've lived more than my share of love stories. It's your turn now." Kendra wrapped her arm around Sara's shoulders and admired the ring on her finger. It wasn't a normal engagement ring, but Kendra thought it was beautiful in a way that a diamond ring never would be. "He really loves you."

"I love him, too, so much that it scares me sometimes. I don't know how I got so lucky."

"It's not luck," Kendra said firmly. "It was meant to be."

"Ha, I don't know about that. I doubt we were fated to be together."

"How do you know?" Kendra argued, tone half-kidding, half-serious. "You can't deny that everything in your life has led to this. Maybe you'll get more lives, too."

Len had overheard them. " _More_ lives? I don't know if I can even get through this one." He nodded over at Stein, Mick, and Ray who were pouring shots, ostensibly to 'celebrate' Len and Sara's engagement.

"And here's to me since I was instrumental in getting them together," Ray announced loudly, holding up his shot glass and then downing it along with the others.

"I miss the days when he was annoyed by our relationship," Len reminisced. "Where did they go?"

There'd been a definite shift in Ray's attitude toward them after he and Kendra broke things off. It was as if he wanted to see at least _one_ relationship on their team work. Or maybe it had nothing to do with that and he'd just decided he wanted his friends to be happy. No matter his reasons, Sara didn't mind even if he seemed a little…over-involved at times. And despite Leonard's outward claims, she knew it didn't actually bother him, either.

As if sensing her thoughts, Ray called over to them, "I have plenty of snapshots of you two that we can use for your wedding." He scrolled through images on his phone. "I was picturing a nice photo collage, or we could enlarge some and put them around the room. Oh, we could set up a projector with slides, too! Not to brag, but I'm an expert in PowerPoint."

Leonard couldn't decide which option from Ray was the worst – that meant it had to be all of them. "Have you been following us around and secretly taking pictures?"

"I was preparing for your future," Ray explained.

"I think he might be more excited about this than us," Len told Sara, somewhat worriedly. "We can never break up. It would devastate him."

They watched in silence for a minute while Ray showed pictures to the others.

"There's no escape, is there?" Sara didn't sound too upset about it.

"I told you that earlier." Leonard pulled her back against him, clasping his hands across her collarbone. (It still amazed him that he'd gone most of his life not wanting to be near anyone and yet he couldn't get enough of her.) "You should never doubt me, Lance."

Mick had started criticizing Ray's photography skills. "Lighting's all wrong in these, you're going to have to redo them." He cast an exasperated look at Len and Sara. "Not that it will be a problem."

"Oh, great opportunity!" Ray exclaimed, holding his phone up and quickly taking a photo. Sara winced at the flash and Ray frowned at his phone's screen. "Sara, you need to put in a little more effort. Next time, pretend to be happy you're engaged."

She tried to step forward, with vague thoughts of taking his phone and smashing it, but Leonard wouldn't let her go.

"In case anyone was unaware, I'm certified to perform wedding ceremonies," Hunter said.

"Who gets to be your best man?" Ray asked, as he and Mick began debating which one of them was better suited.

"No one. We're eloping," Len told them, and when the others started arguing over _that_ , he decided to ignore them completely. He noticed Sara fiddling with the loose ring on her finger. "You don't have to wear it that way. I know it's not your style, plus it might hurt you when you're…helping rid the world of evil. There's a chain in there for a necklace."

She picked up the box and pulled out the cardboard insert that had held the ring, revealing a silver chain underneath. She put the ring on it and then tilted her head forward to let him fasten it behind her neck.

"This means you officially belong to me now," he declared.

Before she could protest (mostly on principle, since the way he meant it, she actually agreed), Jax stepped up beside them. "You're wrong, Len. According to that ring, she clearly belongs to this James guy."

"I'm going to re-engrave it!" Len snapped.

"Sara Hargrove," she hummed. "It has a nice…ring to it."

Leonard just looked at her, because if he said anything, he wasn't going to be able to keep up the irritated façade he was trying valiantly to maintain.

"He sounds rich," Kendra agreed. "Like his family owns a fleet of yachts."

"Do you know what happened to James?" Sara asked, innocently. "Was he successful by any chance?"

Leonard ran a finger down the silver chain around her neck. "Looking to trade up, Lance?"

"Maybe," she allowed, "if the price is right."

"Hey, at least I didn't steal the ring," he reminded her, sounding quite proud of himself. He glanced behind them to find Ray. "Though I might have borrowed Palmer's credit card to pay for it."

Ray whipped around so quickly that he almost spilled the full shot he was holding. "You what? That's identity theft! And credit card fraud and –"

"Yeah, I got it," Len interrupted, pulling the card out of his pocket and flipping it over to Ray. "You were all technically right about why I was late and it involved committing a lot of crimes. Don't worry about it too much, Palmer. I'll give you back the $20."

"You paid that much for someone else's class ring?" Jax shook his head. "You got ripped off."

" _I_ got ripped off," Ray corrected him.

Leonard didn't tell them that after the hell he'd gone through to find it, he'd have gladly paid any price. (Well…let _Palmer_ pay any price.)

"Who charges $20 on a stolen credit card, anyway?" Jax went on. "It would have been less embarrassing if you just pocketed it and walked out."

"I didn't have any cash," Len said defensively. "And not stealing it was deliberate."

"That ring is technically mine," Ray pointed out.

"Although I'm very open-minded, I don't think we'd work out in the long run," Len told him. "I want to strangle you too often."

"Coincidentally, I mostly feel the same about you," Ray told him. "Forget about paying me back…if you'd had any real intention of doing so. I have more than enough money. Consider it my early wedding gift to both of you."

"You got us a $20 gift?" Len scoffed. "That's pretty cheap of you, Palmer."

Ray tried to stare him down. "I think what you meant to say is 'thank you for not pressing charges.'"

Leonard didn't hesitate. "No, that's _not_ what I meant to say."

Sara nudged Leonard in the side. Hard. "We do appreciate it, Ray."

"How do you even have a credit card for Leonard to steal in the first place?" Kendra asked Ray, confused. "I thought you had no assets after you came back?"

"Felicity fixed it for me a while ago by putting all my funds into a trust. She set up a credit card connected to the account for when I'm back in Central City." Ray glanced at Leonard reproachfully. "I see now that wasn't the best idea."

"Wait a minute, I think my lovely fiancée is right." Leonard's tone had done a complete 180. "We very much appreciate your gift to us. Now tell me more about this trust." He successfully side-stepped Sara when she tried to elbow him again.

"Stop trying to run a con. Ray's our friend, not a mark."

Len eyed him. "Sure he can't be both?"

"You don't have to steal from me," Ray said. "If you're that hard up for money, I'll give you a portion of the proceeds from the book I plan to write about our journey when this is all over."

"Hold up," Jax interrupted, "since when are you a writer?"

"I was keeping journal entries about the places we went and Gideon informed me I have quite the way with words. I decided to compile them all so that we never forget anything."

"What if there are things we _want_ to forget?" Len asked.

"Then you're out of luck," Ray said, brightly.

Len looked up at the ceiling. "So we have _you_ to blame for this, Gideon?"

Gideon wisely didn't respond and Ray continued, "I'll change the names if you want, but your relationship would be a perfect way to lure in readers, don't you think?"

"Never took you for a romance novelist," Len said, "but _this_ I'd have to see."

"It's not a romance, it's an epic time travel adventure. That said, what's your opinion on including more…intimate scenes?" Ray asked, carefully. "Involving, uh, you two?"

It took Leonard a few seconds to realize what he meant. "That's not weird at all."

"Is that a yes?"

When Leonard didn't immediately answer (truthfully, he was curious about what Ray might write), Sara leapt in. "That is not a yes! It's an emphatic _no_."

Ray really thought she was underestimating his skill. "They'd be tastefully done, if that's your concern."

"What am I doing in this book of yours?" Mick asked. "'Cause if they're not into it, you can write about me as much as you want. Of course, I'd need a love interest. How about the lovely and newly single Kendra?"

"How come you get Kendra?" Jax protested. "Maybe I want her!"

"I'm grateful I'm not young anymore," Stein said, shaking his head as Mick and Jax both started throwing out offers of various gifts they'd give Kendra if she'd agree to be their fictional love interest in Ray's 'epic time travel adventure'.

"You can both have her," Ray said cheerfully, then at Kendra's look, he quickly backpedaled. "Or, uh, not. You three can work that out yourselves. I've considered making it into a series, though, so there's plenty of time to get in all the story lines we want."

"I thought it was supposed to chronicle our _real_ adventures," Sara said.

"Artistic license," Ray told her, unapologetically. "Gotta stretch the truth a little to appeal to a wide audience."

"Make sure to include a scene where you keep bothering me in the middle of a proposal," Leonard suggested.

Ray didn't miss the not-so-subtle chastisement, nor would he let it pass without comment (taking too much after the rest of them at this point). "I only intervened because I care. I'm going to have to rework the beginning of that scene because it was shaky for a few minutes there."

"Hmm, do you think it was 'shaky' because I didn't plan for this here or now?" Len defended himself. "I had no choice once I realized this team's incessant questions were going to throw a wrench in my plans."

"At least you still have a chance to get the ending right."

"Do tell us," Len mocked, "how would you end this scene in your fictional masterpiece?"

Ray didn't even have to think about it. "I'd go with the classic – a kiss."

"Oh sure, you'd go with a kiss," Len said scornfully, as if he were suddenly a literary critic. "How cliché and overdone, as if _every_ romance doesn't end with –" Sara cut him off by leaning up to kiss him.

Leonard pretty much knew she'd done that to spite him (not that he cared). He abruptly pulled her closer in retaliation and laughed against her mouth when she gasped from the feeling of losing her balance. He deepened the kiss to distract her from any thoughts she might have about trying to get revenge on him for it.

She was his favorite person in the world, no matter where or when they were, and he hoped she knew that from the way he changed the kiss as it went on, turning it almost reverent. He couldn't imagine what he'd do without her; he didn't even want to _try_. And he considered it one of the few miracles he'd ever experienced that she felt the same.

When their kiss ended, he shifted so he could whisper against her ear, "Alright, maybe Palmer had at least _one_ good idea in his life."

"I heard that," Ray told them, sounding unnaturally close; sure enough, when they looked over, he was _right there_. Again.

"You've gone and ruined the scene," Leonard sighed. "I had a perfect ending line."

"I'll edit this part out for my book," Ray assured him.

Len was going to keep arguing with him out of habit, but Sara was laughing at his side; if she was happy, there was nothing to argue about.

As Leonard looked around at his teammates (his _friends_ ) happily drinking and chatting and planning their wedding (someone help him), he realized that even though his proposal hadn't gone the way he'd planned, it had worked out the way it was supposed to.

Their friends being there hadn't ruined anything. All they'd _ever_ done was make his and Sara's lives better.

He didn't have to tell them that, either. They already knew.

Leonard was just the last one to realize it.

 **XXXXXX**


End file.
